Only Lovers Left Alive
by whiteyspidey
Summary: Emily's life, like everyone else's, has had her life turned upside down by a dangerous epidemic. While she and her friends struggle for survival in post apocalyptic Rosewood, Emily finds out that even as humanity is at the brink of extinction, life has to be about more than simply surviving.
1. Only Lovers Left Alive

**So I decided to take a little break from "Scar Tissue" and write this one shot. It's a AU, with some random zombie-elements and a couple of elements snagged out of Battlestar Galactica. If you haven't seen Battlestar Galactica, don't fret, the only things that you need to know is that Pyramid is a ball game and Triad is very similar to Poker. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one-shot. Make sure to review.**

It is at moments like these that you stop and rethink your life, no matter the fact that you are pretty sure that it's about to end. Your life flashes before your eyes and you can't help but wonder if this is it, is this all there is? You are Emily Fields, only daughter of Pam and Wayne Fields. Your father was a great man, that is what you have been told time and time again. Since this horrid virus started spreading out, isolating your town and gauzing its residents step by step, people like your father became even more important in the community. They held up rule and order when nobody else would and protected you from these awful things that dwelled beyond the city gates. But even though he was a great man, your father was not indestructible and you found that out the hard way, when his section got ambushed on that devastating day in October. You still remember the last thing that he had said to you before he left base that morning, before going that day like all the other days to serve his community:

"You take good care of your mother Emmy."

And she had agreed that day, like all the other days, because she was sure that she would only have to wait until evening and then he would be back again. But this time she waited at the gates until long after the sun had set. It was not until her mother came to take her back to the base that the convoy returned with the devastating message:

"Mrs and Ms Fields, I am so sorry to have to report this to you but we lost sergeant Fields in battle today."

She would later learn that her father had sacrificed himself, pulling the pin out of a hand grenade while swarmed with attackers, giving his convoy a chance to escape. But at that moment none of that seemed to matter. All that mattered was that her father was gone and not coming back.

It was after that when she started volunteering for expeditions herself. She told herself that it was because she had to pull her own weight, that the time of innocence had passed for her and her friends who had started enlisting as well. But there was a part of her that wondered if she just wanted to go out in a blaze of glory -a martyr for the cause like her old man and join him in the afterlife. Ali had been the leader of the pack -strong, bold and sassy, she guided them with an iron fist, never considering any other point of view than her own. This attitude got her the admiration of many but also the anger of others -including her friend Spencer who thought that her intelligence should also play a role in the decision making of the group. Ali responded by this criticism by means of divide and conquer -she kept the girls on their toes, pining for her admiration but also not strong enough so the could band against her. Emily hadn't seen a problem with this, at least for the time being, because Ali always had her ways to make her feel special -like there was nobody else in the world that would ever see her as she did. This belief culminated one afternoon in one of the document rooms, when the rest of the squad had left after a particularly grueling strategy exercise. The girls were sitting together, laughing at a silly doodle that Ali had sketched over her briefing, stating that it help her memorize the most important points. It was then when Emily leaned forward, not really knowing why she was doing it but feeling a strong pull to do it none the less, and laid her lips tentatively on Ali"s. The other girl didn't say anything but didn't pull back from the other girls advances none the less. It wasn't until later when the girls were alone again, this time in the changing rooms after drill practice, and Emily tried pursuing Ali again that the other girl put her foot at the door:

"It didn't mean anything Em. Don't be so childish. I like boys."

After that, Emily hadn't really been sure where she had the girl that she used to consider her best friend and it wasn't long until more confusion got added to the mix -the night that Ali disappeared. There were many rumours that circulated about her disappearance. Spencer said that Ali would have loved it -everyone talking about her, wondering about her. Some said that she had found herself an older, handsome colonel and ran away with him to New York where they were suppose to have barricaded themselves against the outside threat in the Fitzgerald theater. Others said that she was living a couple of towns north under an assumed identity -Vivian Darkbloom was a name that got thrown around a lot. And then there were others that simply assumed that she had gotten unlucky, sneaking out after dark and become meat for the hordes that swarmed outside the barricades during the night. This theory got stronger a year later, once the four remaining girls had finally learned to live without their leader, when a decomposed body was found by a patrolman close to Ali's old residence. It was severely decomposed and lacking the technology that they once had, it could only be assumed that this might have been the beautiful blond that had disappeared almost a year ago.

The girls, along with the rest of their community were shocked of course, because this meant that the perpetrator had not been a ferocious beast, but rather one of their own. Emily battled with her own demons because of this, but decided to keep them from the other girls, fearful that they might not understand. Had her kiss doomed Ali? Was this some sort of divine retribution for what they had done? Did the gods who had already given the world so much horror by unleashing this virus upon the earth, have even more disgust for what had happened between the two girls?

Emily's head had been filled with those fears, when she came upon another person that made her question everything that she ever knew. Her name was Maya and she was extraordinarily beautiful and free, so free that it was almost like she didn't live in the same world as others did, where rations, curfew and regular population counting was a sad reality. Emily bumped into her one night where she was gathered with a group of people outside one of the bunkers, strumming on her guitar and singing a heartwarming melody. She stuck around, watching the other girl, humming peacefully, infecting the others around her with warmth and hope. She even waited until the others had packed up and left and the other woman was packing her guitar to approach her:

"Why sing songs in times like these?"

"Because my dear, it reminds us that there is more to this existence than staying alive. If we lose the things that make us human, then what do we have left to fight for?"

Emily had wanted to argue to that curious looking girl but when she had the words upon her lips that she realized that she was right. So, instead of bickering, she opted for walking Maya back to the barracks. Their conversation ranged from everything to nothing, their lives, their likes and dislikes and also went down the road of general silliness, with Emily giggling in a way she didn't remember when she had done last time. Their casual rendezvous turned into a habit, with Emily picking Maya up after her drill practice and them walking back together, taking just a little extra route before saying their goodbyes. It was during one of those nights when Emily was lingering on her goodbye, not really wanting to turn around and leave, that Maya had done something most peculiar: she leaned forward, took the other girl's face in her hands and planted a feather light kiss on her lips. While Emily had known what it was like to plant a kiss like that on someone else longingly, she had never had the experience of someone taking the first move, confirming that the feelings that she felt for her own sex were not just some wicked desire that she and only she felt, but something that she shared with other girls. Girls like Maya, that was pushing her lips against her oh so tenderly.

They didn't speak much about what had transpired between the two of them. Emily had started going on intensive tours that would sometimes take the better half of the week, but she made sure to always let Maya know when she was back in Rosewood. The other girl stated that they didn't need to discuss what they were in details, that the world was too backwards and their lives might get cut short any second, so it was better just to enjoy things while they lasted. And enjoy they did, basking in stolen moments behind buildings, in empty hallways, and finally that one time in an abandoned building that the other girls had pointed out to her. Turns out that they had known, for a long time now, what they two girls were up to, and were fine with it, as long as Maya didn't wind up breaking Emily's heart. At least that is what Hanna assured her of before she handed her the keys and told her not to light too many candles, because the building was after all, made out of wood. The night turned out to be magical, evoking many emotions in Emily that she didn't yet comprehend, but that did not stop her from submerge herself in it. She memorized every detail, every touch, every sound. Though she did not know it at the time, she would need the remains of that fire to warm herself up in the frost that was to come.

For the next time that Emily returned from a tour, Maya was nowhere to be found. She had been absent one time before when Emily came back, but then she had left a message, explaining that she had been called to do a tour in the woodlands, and that she would be back soon. This time there was no message, no word. When Emily went into her bunk to ask for her, she even found her guitar, that the other girl had left behind, and she knew that she usually wouldn't go anywhere without her guitar, not even on tour. This didn't feel like she had gone on her own, it felt forced, and her suspicion got confirmed two weeks later when a hefty thunderstorm dug a black bag up that had been hidden just beneath one of the barracks. This time the decomposition was only slight, and there was no doubt that this body had belonged to Maya. And this time the disturbing realization was clear as a sunny day: The dead walkers had never made it into town. This had to have been done by one of the living.

Not long after this, Emily started receiving the messages. They were taunting, threatening to expose her to the town, promising that the community was not as accepting to her kind as they had been before the walkers became a reality. The other girls had also started receiving threats of their own, and they had all agreed that whoever the mysterious messenger was, they'd have to do whatever it takes to make sure that what they were threatening to expose didn't become a reality. And that was the moment where they had started taking real risks, sneaking around way after curfew and extending their tours outside the safe perimeter, to get ahold of things that the mystery person asked of them in exchange for their silence.

And that was the reason why Emily now found herself alone in an abandoned building, running for her dear life but finding nothing but dead ends. She had lost the other girls when the walkers had surprised them and now she wasn't even sure if they were alive or not. A couple of them were closing in on her and she was not sure for how much longer they would be kept off her scent. She silently counted the bullets that she had left, only three and there were five of them. One of the creatures turned its head and sniffed into the air. Emily tried to breathe even breaths and made some very sobering calculations. If she attacked right now, and if the other girls were still alive, she might be able to distract these things for long enough for them to make their escape. They already had what they came here for and their mystery writer would be satisfied for now. And Emily would go out in a blaze of glory, just like her dad had done, sacrificing herself for the greater good. Her mom would be sad, but she would surely understand. She took a deep breath, steadied her hand and cocked her gun. She felt a small tear roll from her eye. It might be painful but it would be over before she even knew it.

She was about to get up and face the music when a loud bang went off so close that she could feel the impact on her body and one of the creature's heads exploded into mush. Emily watched in awe as an auburn haired girl swooped in where the fallen creature had just stood and proceeded to blast two more of them into oblivion. She was cocking her gun and steadying it for a fourth kill when the other remaining one seemed to gain unusual momentum and soared into the air, preparing to claw the new arrival. It was then when Emily's senses finally kicked into action and she elbowed the attacking creature, knocking it down to the ground and then extending her arm to donate the fatal blow. The other girl, having finished the other creature off turned around and gave her a nod, a sort of a 'good job'-gesture, before grabbing her hand and making a run for the exit. They met Aria and Hanna, who were also running for their lives, on their way out, and the newcomer gestured toward an exit they had previously neglected. Once they got out, they noticed an armed vehicle parked that had definitely not been there when they had entered the building, and the auburn haired girl jumped in, gesturing for them to do the same.

"Wait," Aria exclaimed once they were inside. "We need to find Spencer."

In those said words they heard the racket of a terrified Spencer falling out the entrance, followed by a gnawing, drooling creature. Emily looked to get out of the vehicle, but before she could even open the door, the auburn haired girl had jumped out and ran out to her friend. In one swift motion, she kicked the creature that had seized a screaming Spencer by the shoulders, and let off one more shot from her piece straight into the creature's skull. Emily had just opened the door and was able to hear the exchange of words that went on between the two girls:  
"Thank you."

"It's been a pleasure. Now get in!"

It's been three days now since Emily got back to base, back to Rosewood. Her mother had given her a fair share of fuzz over her 'sweet little girl', their commander has questioned them as of why and they have given their excuses, since the auburn haired girl dumped them outside the gates and told them that they should be fine from here and they had told him several convincing answers as to how they could have gotten back so quickly, being only a foot squad. Three days it has taken her to feverishly ask around, trying to find out the other girl's name, when she finally gets pointed to a barrack where some of the most elite soldiers train. It explains why they have never met before, these kids have been trained almost from the time that they've learned how to walk. She decides to use her time off, their reward since they completed their mission early, to go looking for the mysterious girl and finds her in the courtyard of the barracks, laughing and playing a game with people who look to be her squadmates.

"Paige," she says and notices how the other girl turns around immediately, and yet tries to play it cool.

"What's up? I'm sort of busy Fields," she says nonchalantly.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Can you do it once we're done playing?"

"Do you have a lot left?"

"Depends on how good you are," the girl throws her a blue ribbon. "You're in. Do you need them to explain it to you or are you a good observer?"  
"I can get around," Emily says and ties the ribbon to her arm.

Emily doesn't know how much time has passed but it has to be at least a couple of hours. Her team ended up winning the match but as the teams disbanded, Paige demanded that they would have a rematch since the last goal was totally not fair. Her buddies didn't have the energy for another game and left already, but Emily agreed to a one-on-one rematch. She kind of enjoys seeing the other girl being so intensely challenged, loving the fact that she can get someone on edge like that and totally neglecting to tell her that her dad had taught her Pyramid and had played it with you since she was old enough to throw a ball.

The sun had already gone down and both the girls were sweaty and dirty from the dust, but showed no signs of giving up. Emily seized the ball and was making a go for the goal, when Paige suddenly gave her such a hard knock that they both fell to the ground.

"Hey! That was totally unfair," Emily spat out, noticing how close she was to the other girl, with her almost lying on top of her.

"Don't be such a baby Fields!" the other girl spat out.

"How do you know my name?"

"How do you know mine?"

"Why did you just save us and skip off like that?"

"I was patrolling around. And you failed to secure the spot before you went inside. I knew something bad was about to happen."

"I don't need you to take care of me."

"Well, you'd be food for the undead if I hadn't."

"Why are you so cocky? Who died and made you…"

Emily doesn't get any further because the other girl silenced her by pressing her lips upon hers. The kiss is swift, yet deep and somehow feels urgent, like the other girl had been holding her breath until the moment that she seized Emily by the lips. She starts caressing the side of her face, stroking through her hair and then pulls back, as the realization of what they are doing had just suddenly hit her. She skims around, seeing nobody around but not losing the fearful look:

"Don't tell," she says right before getting up and running off like the area had just gotten declared red alert.

Emily doesn't see Paige again for two more weeks. She tries keeping her off her mind, focusing on her assignments, spending time with the girls and trying to solve the mystery of who is sending them these damn letters. Per her usual luck, the mysterious messenger seems to have gone suddenly silent, now when she needs a distraction more than ever. So the girls let their hair down, go for strolls in town, horse around and are in the middle of an exciting game of Triad in their common room area when a familiar face suddenly appeared in the door.

"Hey, Fields. Can we talk?" Paige seems hesitant to let the words exit her mouth.

"I'm kind of busy here," Emily says, feeling annoyed.

"Don't worry about that. We're almost done here, besides" Spencer says and calmly winks at Emily as she spreads her cards on the table: "I'm about to clean Fields here out for all her worth."

The other girls convince Emily that they can clean up after the game and she, in exchange, accepts grudgingly that she could probably talk to Paige for a moment. They end up taking a stroll outside, away from questioning eyes. Paige apologizes about running off, explaining that this is not something that she's used to doing, the kissing or the running off. Emily tells her about how she wasn't so used to these things either, not until a couple of years ago, when her best friend who regretfully didn't love her back made the wheels start turning. Paige tells her off how she has spent most of her lives training in the elite squad, trying to impress a dad that barely even knows that she exists, for he sits at his mighty throne way over in California and how she can't help but wonder whether he sent her across the continent for her training as a way to test her or to punish her. Emily tells her about her dad, how he taught her to play Pyramid and took her swimming in the forest lake as a child before the river dried up. Paige tells her that she did in fact know her dad, that sergeant Fields had taught her most of what she knows, how she yearned to have a father like him, and the fact that she knew that Emily was her father that day that she saw the girls on her patrol, and decided to follow them, even though she knew that they were doing something that they shouldn't. And Emily thanks her, and Paige tells her that she really likes her spirit and the game of Pyramid they played, which is what prompted her to kiss her.

They end up at Emily's barracks again, when it is way too late and they should have both been in bed already.

"I really enjoyed tonight," Emily said, before leaning in, feeling Paige move to meet her lips. "Next time that you want to kiss me, just ask me first, okay?"

"Okay," Paige says. "Can I kiss you again Emily Fields?"

"Okay," Emily says and caresses her hair. "As long as you drop the formalities and just call me Em."

"Em…"

She doesn't need to be asked again.

It turns out that Paige McCullers is a girl that is full of surprises. Emily knows that not much can be expected of life in these trying times, and therefore decides to keep her expectations to the minimum, yet the other girl always finds a way to amaze her. After a heated discussion where they argue about who should know about the fact that they are seeing each other, with Paige deciding that it should be no one and Emily arguing that at least her closest friends should know so they can have some sense of normalcy.

"Not everyone has been blessed with your friend group," Paige finally retorted before storming off.

When Emily was done being angry and realized that she didn't design the perimeter to their relationship she opted for walking back to Paige's barracks and see if they wouldn't be able to hash things out. However, when she was approaching, she was startled by the sound of harsh voices:

"What I'm saying McCullers is that I find that sort of thing to be unnatural."

"Cavanaugh, we live in a time where the dead can walk. Why would you really care about the definition of unnatural?"

"So what if I do? I'm entitled to my opinion on that."

"And I'm entitled to think that your opinion is shit!"

"Why do you care about that?"

"Why shouldn't I? It's not your business what other people like doing in their down time. Life is too short. We could be snuffed out by these blood sucking bastards at any moment. So, so what if I might like to spend that time getting some up close and personal with a lady?"

"You would what?"

"You know what Cavanaugh, forget it."

Paige almost runs into Emily when she is walking briskly away.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to...what are you doing here Em?"

"I came to see you. Want to get out of here?"

"Sure," Emily says, feeling warmth spread over her as Paige's hand finds her own. "Let's get out of here."

Paige turns out to be correct about the dangerous times that they live in. After their makeup, both of their assignments get more frequent, with Paige coming home from one with tears in her eyes.

"It's Toby… I mean Cavanaugh, they got him real bad. I'm not sure if he's going to pull through."

So she stays with him, and Emily comes to the hospital wing, making sure that her girlfriend is still eating and sleeping. And one day when she's taking Paige from the hospital wing and back to her barracks, when she notices a very distraught Spencer sneaking in, and realizes that like her, her friends too have secrets.

Once Cavanaugh is out of the woods and Paige's leave to help him get back on his feet is accepted, Spencer approaches Emily when she is getting her stuff together after their afternoon briefing:  
"I know that you know."

"About what?"

"About me and Toby. And thank you for not telling on me."

"There's nothing to tell. It's your relationship. You let other people know once you're ready."

"Thanks. By the way, I think Paige was looking for you. She said something about waiting for you at her barracks."

"I thought she was stuck taking care of Toby."

"Well, I kindly offered to take over her nurse duties for today. Go ahead Em, have some fun. You never know which day is going to be our last."

"I hope you have a good time with your girlfriend," Toby says while seeing Paige and Emily off. He doesn't seem bad off himself, with Spencer catering to his every need and asking him constantly whether his leg is hurting.

"When did this happen?" Emily finally asks Paige once they have walked for a bit.

"Well, it turns out that falling from the third story of a building and then getting dragged back into the car, makes you indifferent to whether the girl that does that likes to kiss other girls or not," Paige says and smirks.

"You did not," Emily says open mouthed.

"I did and I would do it again," Paige says and blushes. "He is my best friend. I would do anything for him."

"Well, I would do pretty much anything for my friends too," Emily says before looking around, puzzled. "Where are you taking me?"

"There is this place. Not a lot of people know about it. You'll love it. Trust me."

It is and she does: the place in question is a small cabin in the forest, carefully covered in branches and moss.

"It was a secret caché for the military," Paige explains as she finally manages to get the door to open. "But once the location stopped being important, they lost interest in it and it sort of became redundant. Wait until you see what's behind.

"No way," Emily excitedly exclaims as they arrive back, seeing a small lake that is carefully hidden. "Is it really safe to swim here?"

"It used to be emergency reservoir, so I guess it is," Paige says as she strips her shirt off. "Come on. I'll raise you!"

After the swim, the girls cuddled up in the cabin, with Paige stoking the fire and Emily placing their canned goods on top of the stove. With their stomachs filled, they retreated to the lower of one of the bunks, chatting in lowered voices, even though there was nobody around to hear it. Finally, after having gone through every detail of her mission that turned out to be the nightmare that almost cost her her best friend, the discovery of their friend's secret tryst and the fact that she feels that she should have told Toby about her feelings way sooner, Paige whispers:

"Can we just not talk anymore?"

Emily nods silently, and there is just a moment's hesitation before she they come crashing together. It is strange the motions that they make together. Like two planets crashing into each other, a commotion that is powerful and explosive, yet so slow and delicate, for they each want the other, more than anything, for this to happen, for to be as close to one another as humanly possible and yet they don't want to rush it, for this is something that neither one of them wants to ever end. They end up spending the entire night exploring one another, with Emily finding out a completely new side to Paige McCullers; a side that is soft, vulnerable and yet unyielding, as for that time, their first time, she never once looks away. Afterwards, they hold one another and as the sun rises up and bathes them in its golden beams, Emily trails the red lines that are spread across Paige's body. Each mark has a story, and Paige tells them without even being prompted, because for once in her life, she seems to be at complete ease:

"Elite drill practice, eighth grade. I fell from the barricade."

"Fight in the mesh hall. Sean Ackard. I won"

"Explosion during my fifth mission. I didn't think I would make it out in one piece."

But once she traces over a criss crossed scar on her upper arm, the other girl hesitates, before taking a look at Emily and then finally saying with a guilt ridden voice:

"Last semester. I was feeling really confused, by how I felt, by everything really. And it somehow just felt like it helped take it all away. It wasn't my first one. But it was my last."

Emily smiles before giving her a kiss:  
"Thanks for sharing all this with me."

"There is something more," Paige gnaws on her lip. "Em. I don't know how to tell you this. But there was an official transition request that came up today. From way up. They want me to transfer to California. It's pretty dangerous, but I can't help but feel that finally my old man has changed his mind about me. You know, gotten over the fact that I'm not the boy that he always wanted."

For a moment, Emily is at loss for words. California is really far away.

"Are you going?"

"I'm considering it. But whatever happens Em, I just want you to know that I have treasured the time that we spent together. Every moment. Even that time when you whooped my ass in Pyramid."

"It's been my pleasure," Emily says and smiles before rewarding Paige with another kiss. "And we will figure it out. Whatever you decide. Maybe I'll file in for a transfer too. Get away from Rosewood. From everything here."

"You would?"

"Yes I would. What? What's that look on your face?"

"Nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing."

"It's just that, Emily, I know we haven't known each other for that long, but, Em, I really do love you."

"I love you too."

The words exit her mouth so effortlessly, so naturally, that their severity don't even dawn on her for a few moments. She drags the other girl into a tight hug:  
"Whatever happens, we'll always have each other."

They must have fallen asleep because once they wake up again it is dark again and there is a ruckus outside. Emily pulls her clothes on hastily and runs out the door with Paige straight at her heels, armed with a small wood axe. The mystery intruder turns out to be Hanna, who jumps back at the sight of the weapon:

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just really need to talk to Emily for a moment and Toby told me where you guys were."

"Okay, sure. I'll be inside Em," Paige says before giving Emily a quick kiss and strolling back inside.

"That's quite the stride of pride isn't it?" Hanna remarks playfully.

"See, I don't even know what that means," Emily said, not really ready to get back into the real world. "What is this about Hanna?"

"It's Ali Emily. She's back. Ali is back!"


	2. Only Lovers Left Alive PII

Emily can't believe what the others tell her. That it's over, that they're finally here. But once she sees the old, beat down, graffed up sign she finally has to admit it to herself. They have indeed arrived.

 **"Welcome to California  
Population: Probably less than the last time you checked."**

Emily sighs as she enters the city with her friends. When they were on the road she used to think about California with glee, that once they were there they would finally be at their destination, that things would have gotten resolved, that they could finally rest easy. But now that she is here she feels that things have just gotten more complicated. When they were on the road she at least felt that she had a simple goal; to put one foot in front of the other and make sure not to get eaten alive. But now, once their grueling journey is over she feels herself at a loss for what to do.

They have barely entered the barracks at the city gates when they are approached by a soldier, obviously from one of the higher places judging by his fancy, untarnished uniform.

"Fields, Hastings, Montgomery, Marin. You have been summoned to the high military council for questioning. Please follow me."

The girls give each other knowing looks, before heading out with the soldier, who motions to the back of an army vehicle which they in turn get into. Once in the car they pass each other worried looks before finally settling for staring at the floor. The car ride takes longer than they expected and the vehicle has to pass a couple of gates where the driver stops and shows identification before being let through.

"Guys, where do you think we're going?" Hanna finally says after being obviously fed up with staying silent.

"I'm guessing they are bringing us into issue a statement," Spencer says in a monotonous voice, still not taking her eyes off the floor. "If I were them I would be curious to know how the plan went so spectacularly haywire."

"It wasn't our fault and you know it," Aria says and bolts up from her seat. "We didn't know that Ali would be teaming up with that no good son of a…"

"Aria sit down," Emily pleads. "If he hits a bump you're going to hurt yourself."

"I doubt that will happen," Spencer says snarkily. "The roads here are smooth as silk. This is what they used to be back before the walkers. Besides, there is not a whole lot of difference between you sitting down and standing up."

"Hey!" Aria says, slapping the other girl's arm but the joke seems to have done its job as it manages to raise their spirit for the rest of the ride.

Once the vehicle pulls over the soldier opens the back to let them out and through the back door of a very large building. Emily gasps in surprise having never seen anything of the sorts for Rosewood was only composed of normal houses, barracks and the occasional apartment duplexes. They walk in a straight line down a hallway before being motioned to stop in front of a large oak door. A uniformed officer exits the room, saluting the soldier having just brought them in and something in his voice rings familiar in Emily's ears.

"Officer Hodgins, I can take it over from here, thank you for your fine job."

"Yes sir. Thank you sir."

As the latter turns around and heads off, both Spencer and Emily lean in to inspect the new arrival better.

"It can't be," Emily says, feeling the surprise hitting her like a bolt of electricity.

"Toby!" Spencer yells and seems to momentarily forget all of her training as she seized the tall man by his lapels and yanks him brutally. "You are suppose to be dead! I thought you were dead! I saw your body! Dead! You broke my heart, you, you…"

"Spence, back off," Hanna says as she and Aria forcefully wrestle their friend off the person that still hasn't moved a muscle.

"Look Fields," Toby says and turns towards Emily who is the only one not involved in the scuffle. "I can explain everything. Just not right now. So tell Spencer… I mean Sergeant Hastings to calm herself down and just be coherent for a little while."

"Why? Where are you taking us?" Emily asks, looking at the man who despite having a shorter haircut and a more bronzed complexion is indeed the same boy that she knew as the friend of Paige McCullers all those years ago.

"You will need to give a statement to the Council," Toby says and looks the other girls, who have calmed down, over. "Just tell them exactly what happened. There was a lot at stake and they would like to know exactly how things came apart."

"Well, you would know how, wouldn't you," Spencer says, her snark having made a comeback. "We got double-crossed by someone we trusted."

"Save that for the inside Spencer," Aria says and turns around as they hear a knock on the door.

"Okay, in you go," Toby says and swings the door open for the girls to get in.

Once they get in Emily first gets shocked by the enormity of it all. She already realized that the house was large when they got in, but the room is immensely large and very sparsely decorated which gives off an even more spacious impression. The only things inside are long shelves of documents that line up against the walls and a lunar shaped table which seems to be occupied by twelve people. There are four chairs posed in front and the girls take their cue to line up in front of the chairs.

"Please take a seat," the person in the middle to the right announces.

"Yes sir, thank you sir," the girls chime in and do as their told.

"Now, please explain to us how the Execution of Case 1582a came to be."

It takes more than two hours as Emily notes duly from the large clock that hangs above their inquisitors but the four girls take turns in explaining exactly how things had turned out from the time that they left Rosewood in a loaded convoy until the moment that they arrived bloodied and beaten to the gated community of the state of California. They explain how after re-appearing in their lives, Ali quickly took charge of their group yet again and once they finished their four year training program she accepted the position of captain of their squad. They admit how they believed her story of running away from the mystery letter sender, known at the time as A, who turned out to be Mona Vanderwaal, an acquaintance to the girls who did base training with them. With Mona captured because of Ali's evidence against her the girls had believed their nightmare to be finally over but she had soon escaped in a prison riot which supposedly resulted in the death of Officer Cavanaugh. Once Mona was out of the picture and their time at the academy was over the girls were trusted for their first large mission which lasted for the better part of a year: getting a convoy across the country from Pennsylvania to California. But once the convoy was closing in on California, they had gotten ambushed by raiders and the ugly truth had revealed itself. It turned out that Alison had not only left Rosewood to escape the taunts of Mona but had run off to be with a former army doctor by the name of Elliott Rollins. By some means he seemed to have convinced her to become his agent inside the military, while secretly working for his own militia which had planned to attack and escape with the convoy.

"Whatever was inside that convoy, they must have desired it desperately," Spencer says, trying to keep her voice as monotonous as possible. "They lost a lot of their men, but so did we. The only people that escaped were the four of us and our IT, Officer Rivers, but he is currently in critical condition at your hospital unit after having taken a bullet to the lower abdominal area."

"And how do you know for certain that Captain DiLaurentis conspired with this Rollins individual to attack your convoy Sergeant Hastings?" one of the interrogators asks.

"We heard them conversing sir," Spencer says, staring at her hands. "When they thought they had killed us all."

"Thank you Sergeant Hastings, Officer Fields, Officer Marin, Officer Montgomery. You are free to go. The infirmary will attend to any wounds that you have and you are off duty until further notice. The Council would like to thank you for your work and bravery when faced with the treacherous actions of your commander."

"Yes sir, thank you sir."

Once the girls have exited the large hall and huddled up around Toby who assures them that he will take them somewhere where they will be warm, safe and taken care off, the sight of the Members of the Council catches Emily's eye. While inside, the lighting of the room was designed to cast focus off of their faces but once they are outside she can't help but letting her eyes linger on one of its younger members who seems to have stayed silent and observant during the entire course of the interrogation. Her dress is more formal now than it used to be when she was out on her rouge patrols, all ironed pants and shiny shoes, auburn hair combed carefully into a tight bun, not a lock out of place, her posture no longer a lanky slouch but rather a straight-backed pose who would make a drill instructor shine with pride, but the old intensity in her brown eyes as she discusses with her comrades gives her away making Emily freeze in her steps before uttering:  
"Paige, is that you?"


	3. Only Lovers Left Alive PIII

**Somebody misunderstood the tags that were on this story so let me clarify: this is a Paily-centric story. Maya is a character that appears in the first chapter, but this is not an Emaya-centric fic. To prevent any more misunderstandings i have removed her character tag.**

It takes a moment for the other woman to register that she is actually being stared at but once she does, their eyes meet and neither one seems to be able to turn away. She abruptly excuses herself from the conversation that she is having before marching on towards Emily, saluting Toby as she goes:

"Sergeant Cavanaugh, I will take over with Officer Fields from now."  
"Sir yes sir," Toby chimes. "Hastings, Marin, Montgomery. Come with me please."

"Walk with me Fields," Paige says and breaks into a fast gait with Emily doing her best to keep up.

"I thought I told you to just call me Em," Emily says, feeling a little snappy.

"Don't do this," Paige says and Emily feels how she discreetly grabs her elbow as they turn a corner. "Not here. It could get us into a lot of trouble. I'm just trying to save face, for the both of us… Em."

"Where are we going?" Emily asks as they start heading up a flight of stairs, away from the large justice halls.

"Somewhere we can talk," Paige says and motions her towards a hallway which seems to be leading them from the building they were just in and into another one. "I have temporary residence here, while I fulfill my Council duties. It's just a little longer."

"Council duties?" Emily asks and cocks an eyebrow. "That's not exactly what I'd call up your alley. What happened to the Paige McCullers that I knew. The one that loved running, jumping, climbing trees?"

"She hasn't left, I can assure you of that. Things are just run a lot different here in California. You get elected to Council and other powerful positions according to your accomplishments, but I'll be damned if someone tells me that it doesn't also come down to connections."

"So, you think your dad had something to do with it?"

"Absolutely. He keeps on stressing that the only way to really affect how things are run is to run them yourself. I don't really know about that. I just try to run my own squad as tightly as I can and when they call me to the Capital to fulfill my civic duties as an elected Council member I try to get it over and done as quickly as possible so I can return back to what really matters."

"So, your job is basically to sit around a table and pass judgement on how other people do their jobs?"

"No, that's only a very small part of it. We also make plans on how to proceed with planning in order to better contain the virus and minimize its damage on the living."

"And that included feigning Toby's death and devastating my friend?"

"That is more complicated than you make it sound."

"Try me," Emily says and poses defiantly in front of the other woman, resting her hands stiffly on her hips.

"This is confidential information…"

"Well, someone that we were led to believe was dead turned out to be very much alive so I would say that we are privy to that information."

Paige seems momentarily at a loss for words before making an exasperated sigh:  
"I concur. But this cannot get any further than you and your friends. I'm assuming that Sergeant Cavanaugh is telling them the same information as we speak."

"You would be correct in that. If not then I would assume that Spencer will make him wish that he really died in that explosion."

"That's not funny."

"I'm sorry. Carry on."

"Sergeant Cavanaugh's squad got a very dangerous proposition after it was discovered that Vanderwaal had been captured. It turned out after interrogations that even though Vanderwaal's methods were somewhat extreme, her intentions were honorable. As someone of an immensely high IQ, Vanderwaal had started gathering material to cure the Walker-virus and being only a one person, set out to create an army which she referred to A's army, which she used to get the things that she needed to sustain her experiments..."

"...and when those guys weren't enough, she started extorting random people throughout Rosewood to get what she wanted. Yeah. That part of the story I know because me and my friends were amongst her victims."

"I sympathize for that."

"Save it. Just tell me what happened next."

"Once this information was released to the people above it was clear that we had to find a way to get Vanderwaal out of prison to continue her experiments but that local officials could not be told about it as this needed to remain a top secret. We offered her a transfer to California where she would be working for one of the military biolabs under surveillance in exchange for her complete co-operation which she readily accepted."

"So, you staged a prison break to make it look like Mona escaped out of town on her own?"

"Correct."

"But why did you need to make it seem that Toby was dead?"

"Mona needed someone to take her to California. Someone that was immensely capable in the art of survival. But the disappearance of such a personnel would raise questions…"

"But nobody goes looking for someone that they believe is dead."

"Also correct."

"You know, that incident really tore Spencer to pieces. I thought we would never be able to put her back together. She was the one that saw him dead before the fire engulfed everything."

"That must have been awful. And you should know that Sergeant Cavanaugh felt incredibly bad about this. He has never forgotten Sergeant Hasting, and has spoken about her regularly ever since he arrived here with Vanderwaal. A year on the road and three years working with me here in the Capital and I think she has never truly left his mind."

"I can confidently say that she feels the same way. You know she specialized as a medic because of this."

"So I heard. I also got news that she graduated with top marks."

"She pushed herself immensely hard. Part of it's because of the fact that she's Spencer, but I also think that she believes that if she would have had more medical knowledge that night she would have been able to save him."

"So, something good came off it after all."

"You try telling her that now. I'll wait right here."

"I'm good, thanks. I don't think any sort of elite training could prepare me for dealing with an enraged Hastings."

"So, why are you allowed to tell me about the cure that Mona was trying to develop?"

"Because, what you were carrying in that convoy were some of the missing substances that she wasn't able to bring with her once she and Toby escaped Rosewood and we will need your help to retrieve them since you are the only ones that know what the silos carrying them look like."

"From the outside yeah. We never saw the inside. We just got asked to move a convoy and move a convoy is what we did."

"That's the closest thing we have."

"So, what now?" Emily asked as the two women had arrived in a spacious apartment, which yet lacked any sort of personal symbols that a person would leave behind in their living spaces. It looked like one of the things that her dad had told her existed in the old world before the walkers -a hotel room.

"You rest, all of your squad. Make the best use possible of the time that you have because we don't know when you'll have to set out again. We already have some of our best scouts looking for Rollin and Dilaurentis and they will give us their position as soon as they know anything."

"So, we will attack them?"

"Yes. They have left us with no other choice. Rollins seems to have his own militia and we have no way of knowing what he is planning to do with the substances that he robbed from your convoy. I'm sorry if you feel uncomfortable having to attack Ali, I know that she has… played a very large role in your life."  
"Well, she decided to throw all that away the moment that she ran away with Rollins and double crossed us didn't she? All that time after she came back, she was just playing us like a tune."

"That's one way of looking at it."

"So," Emily says, looking around, longing for a change of subject. "Is this where you live now?"

"Not exactly. I stay here when I need to work for the Council. This place doesn't really suit me. Much like this fancy dress up," Paige responds and claws awkwardly at the collar of her shirt. "It feels like a costume that doesn't really fit."

"Here, let me help you with that," Emily says and without giving it another thought she grabs the knot with assured hands.

"Thanks," Paige says trying to stay relaxed while the other woman's hands slide along her neck, loosening the tie up. "I don't know why this is so hard for me. I have to do it every day that I have to attend the council. I can load an AK-47 with less problem than this."

"Well, it is also a much more useful to be able maintain the AK-47

than this," Emily says and smiles while she releases the knot.

"It sure is, how come you're so good at this?" Paige asks as she notably tries to steady her breath.

"I used to watch my mom doing it, every time that my dad came back from a mission. It was one of the most wonderful things, watching her taking that tie off, because that meant that he was safe and back with us, at least for the time being," Emily says and chuckles at the memory. "There we are, all done."

The two women stay silent, while Emily slides Paige's tie off, with her other hand still lingering on the other woman's chest. She looks at the silky substance in her hand, biting her lip before turning her head back up to meet the other woman's eyes and realizes that since she laid her hand over her chest, she has not drawn a single breath. The next couple of seconds happen so fast that she is not sure who the instigator is or exactly in what order they pass but what she is sure of is that Paige McCullers has her engaged in a lip lock that packs so much firepower that it seems like it has spent the last five years in the making. She finds that she has disposed of the tie and has seized the other woman by the lapels, giving her an intense smooch which she returns with gusto. They move blinded and fumbling around the apartment, stumbling next to what seems to be the door to the bedroom. Emily relishes in the feelings that flow through her as the auburn haired woman pushes her up against the doorframe, kissing her passionately. But suddenly Paige stops, laying her hands on Emily's shoulders and stepping slightly back, drawing a deep breath as she does so. She looks at her with her eyes wide open, bracing herself as if she is fighting her hardest for some semblance of self-control.

"Wait," she says staring at Emily. "We don't need to do this Em. I can understand if you feel this is too much too soon. We haven't seen each other for five years and I'm sure that there are a lot of things that we don't know about one another. So I completely understand and respect if you want to stop right now."

"Paige, you ginormous, noble, dork," Emily says, laughing with relief for she had expected the auburn haired girl to say something so much more troubling. "I have spent the last year tracking across wastelands, getting ambushed and wondering whether I'll be somebody else's food before nightfall. We can do the meet-and-greet another time. Right now I just want you to continue what you were doing and no I absolutely don't want you to stop."

"That's good. Because that thing about stopping" Paige says before seizing her again and giving her another crushing embrace. "I was totally just trying to be noble. Damn military upbringing. I don't think I could stop this, even if I wanted to."

After spending a few more moments in a tight embrace, delicately peeling each others jackets and shirts off, the auburn haired woman finally seizes Emily by the legs, picking her up from the ground and carrying her into the bedroom.

"After all this time…" Emily says, caressing her hair as she allows herself to be carried around.

"Always," Paige says before gently laying her down on the bed before slowly climbing on top of her, kissing her way up her body. "I can't ever quit you Em."

And with these words Emily finally allows herself to just let go and sink into the warm and buzzing feeling that fizzles up as she clutches the other woman's body. Her kisses make her forget the fact that she is probably filthy from having traveled miles without any sorts of facilities, the clothes that she peels off her are most definitely ragged and coming apart at the seams and the hair that she so lovingly combs from her face is messy and hasn't been properly washed for months. Yet the auburn haired woman looks at her like she has never seen quite a parallel wonder, taking regular pauses from the fiery frenzy that is consuming them both to simply look her over, drinking what she sees in like an oasis in the desert. Emily doesn't shy away, she looks right back into those dark brown eyes that seem to just see her, not the hard shell that she has grown over the last five years, not the little lap-dog that she felt herself turn into every time that Ali asked for something and not the do-no-harm-sweet-Emily that her friends always seem to take her for. As there is so much more to what she feels than she has ever let other people in on. For she too feels hunger for the tender flesh of others, just as much as her friends and others around her do, with the only difference being that the skin that she wants to caress and gift with endless kisses is that of girls with their soft arms and succulent lips. She too feels angst as she clasps her hands with those of her lover, trying to keep the thought at bay that death might be today, as it is any other day, just around the corner. She feels these things because no matter what sharp voices around her have tried to tell her, she and her desires are very deeply human. It is this, the love that tingles through her as the tension in her body mounts and then bursts into blinding white bliss, that makes her nothing like the ferocious creatures that lurk outside the gates. It is the fullness that she feels as she watches the woman that she has spread on her back before her come undone by work of her hands that reminds her that there is indeed something that is worth fighting for.

She thinks more on it still once their engulfing flame has turned into slow burning embers, and the other woman sleeps beside her, still tangled in her arms. She traces cursives on her back, words that she will never say to anybody and admits to herself that this might be it. Love is what keeps them fighting and gives them a chance to stay alive. And love is what she has for the woman that she feels stirring slowly in her slumber next to her, after all this time that she thought she had lost her forever. Paige lets out a low pitched moan as Emily combs a lock of her from her face and plants a kiss on her exposed shoulderblade:

"Sleep tight now my love. If there is any sort of future in this wicked world we will fight for it together."

For all that will remain in this world, Emily concludes in the pale moonlight with the city humming far below them, when the sun will have burned out and everything turned to cinders, is love.

 **AUTHORS NOTES: So, don't worry guys. This is not the end. I changed the story to a work in progress because I received a very compelling argument that there was more to this story. There will probably be two more parts. Remember to review as I really want to know how you are liking this as oppose to the regular-universe stuff.**


	4. Only Lovers Left Alive PIV

**So, this is the fourth and second to last installation of this story. It will be five parts in total. The chapter turned out way longer than I intended, thus the long time since the last installation (I have been writing this chapter on and off for the better part of two months believe it or not). This is the first draft because after taking such a long time to write it I just wanted to get it out there and out of my system, so if you have any corrections or comments on how it could be improved I would be glad to hear it. And if you have any questions about the universe or characters don't hesitate to comment or PM me. And once again thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them.**

Emily was jolted abruptly awake from a dreamless sleep she didn't remember slipping into by the sound of someone rapping at the front door. She felt the commotion of the other woman slipping from underneath the sheets, cursing under her breath and making a run for the door while trying to slip on some of the clothing that laid thrown around the bedroom like shrapnel on a battlefield. She feigned sleeping until she was alone in the room but as soon as she heard the door being closed delicately, she got out of the bed, recovered her pants and a shirt she didn't recognize but pulled on nonetheless before sleuthing towards the door that was slightly ajar and put her ear against the opening.

Paige's voice came from the other end of the living room, close to where Emily remembered that the exit door was. She also heard a man's voice who seemed to be engaging with her in a debate:

"You said you'd bring him around tomorrow," Paige said, seemingly annoyed. "That's what we agreed on."

"I know sweetie," the man's voice responded, his gentle tone surprising Emily. "Something just came up at the Upper Council and they need me there right away. I know that you're off duty today and he doesn't have his training, so…"

"I know. He's my responsibility. You don't have to play the guilt card here. Especially when it comes to him."

"I knew you could be persuaded."

"Well, don't thank me just yet. I need to pack my things up. Can you give me a few minutes?"

"Momma P!" a child's voice boomed through the corridor, followed by the sound of running feet. "Can we go to the Pyramid Park today?"

"Sure buddy. Just give me a few minutes. I need to get a few things sorted out. Did you say hi to Sergeant Cavanaugh yet?"

"Is he here?"

"Yup, he's directing a meeting just a couple of floors down. If you ask nicely I'm sure he'll let you try on his hat again."

"Cool!"

"I'll take you buddy," the man's voice said reassuringly before turning more formal. "I'll see you at 915 hours soldier?"

"Yes sir," Paige responded, the irony in her voice not lost on Emily who was struggling to take in all the new information this conversation was pouring over her. She tried to take a deep breath, composing herself as she heard the door being shut again. Either the other woman had the inherent ability to move with a natural stealth or her shocked mind had lost its ability to tell time correctly because it only felt like a moment before the bedroom door was opened and her face appeared, looking half cautious, half apologetic.

"Oh you're up?" she asks, seeing the brunette standing before her before picking up on the crossed arms and defensive stance. "You caught all of that? Sorry. This wasn't meant to happen. Not today at least. I wish you didn't have to hear that."

"I don't even know what the hell _that_ was!" Emily exclaims a little louder than she had planned to.

"It's complicated," Paige answers apologetically, not looking back at her.

"Yeah, I bet," Emily answers before grabbing her jacket. "You should be packing."

"Em, please…"

"It's already 903 hours," Emily says, glancing at her watch before turning back towards the other woman, adding coldly: "Soldier."

"I don't think you're getting the right picture here."

"Does it matter though? You moved on. I get it. And now I'm only someone that's in the way. So I'll show myself out."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Most of the soldiers had already cleared the mess hall, leaving the three women at the circular table near the back corner. The blond drew a new card, sighing as she got a look at it before sticking it in the middle of the ones she already had in her hand.

"So you just left?" Hanna asks, glancing over at Emily.

"Well, yeah," Emily responds with a shrug. "What else was I supposed to do? There she was, arguing custody days over a kid that I didn't even know existed. I just decided to save whatever little dignity I had left and make a run for it."

"So, you know without any shadow of a doubt that it was Paige's kid?" Spencer asks, breaking her intense silent stare at her hand.

"Well, if you put it that way, no I can't say that with a hundred percent certainty," Emily says, annoyed that her friends aren't taking her side on the matter. "But she talked about how he was her responsibility, so it sure sounded like it."

"You can't base your accusations on how things sound like," Spencer says and shuffles her cards slightly. "Did you actually give her a chance to explain any of it?"

"Where is this coming from?" Emily exclaims, her annoyance rising up to a notable anger. "Weren't you the one that always believed that Paige McCullers shouldn't be trusted? Shouldn't you be rejoicing in the fact that you were right about this?"

"That was when we were teenagers. It was a long, long time ago. Besides, she kept on kicking my ass in Pyramid. It might have hurt my pride a bit."

"Spence is right you know," Hanna says, giving up on trying to organize her cards, laying them down on the table besides her. "There is such a thing as 'innocent until proven guilty'."

"Actually, that's not the legal term," Spencer says, turning towards Hanna. "It's 'not guilty' until proven guilty."

"Whatever," Hanna says, shaking her head. "Aren't you content with kicking my ass at Triad. Do you need to beat my ass at legal trivia too? How come you didn't take the bar exam since you're such an expert in legal procedures?"

"I did. And I qualified. I just thought my talents would be better spent working in the field."

"Well, how noble of you," Hanna mutters.

"You're just avoiding the fact that your hand is a complete disaster, aren't you?"

"Don't you change the subject Spencer Hastings!"

"You are. You totally are. Is it because you betted your Cheetos ?"

"Those are the last ones I have. I was so sure that I had luck with me tonight."

"Hand them over Hanna."

"Over my dead body."

"Guys, guys," Emily says, raising her arms. "Can we focus here You might be right about this whole thing, but I think I'm just going to have to take some time to digest this entire thing…"

"In case you forgot," Hanna says, turning towards her friend. "Time isn't exactly of the essence here. We are on the edge of being wiped out by flesh eating mongrels, pretty much on a daily basis here. The future is just a fucking concept. You act today or you might not get the chance to act at all. I get that you're hurt after how things turned out with Ali, but you can't keep on diverting what she did on everybody else. Other people deserve the benefit of the doubt, just like they did before. You used to be someone that believed in that. Who is to say that you can't become that person again?"

"It's not that simple," Emily mutters, feeling Hanna's words sink in, clawing themselves into her as they do. As much as she hates to admit it, there might be some truth in them. "And besides, it's not like she's been around to try to explain things."

" _Neither have you,_ " Hanna said and slammed her cards down on the table. "Forget it. I fold."

"Such gullibility," Spencer says, revealing her unimpressive hand.

"You fooled me!"

"And you fell for it!" Spencer says smirking, as she raked her winnings in. "Remember, what you have on your hand is not always of the essence, but much rather your execution."

"You're beginning to sound mysterious and cryptic, kind of like Ali used to be," Hanna says, letting out a loud sigh. "Know what? I'll make you a deal: one more game, double or nothing. You in?"

"Deal!" Spencer answers and started dealing the cards again.

"Uhm guys, still here," Emily says annoyed. "You're not going to deal me?"

"You have somewhere else that you should be."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Paige was the last person leaving the Council that night. She collected her folders together and folded her jacket neatly over her arm before heading out the door. Having dropped Jackson off for his weekday stay at the training camp and seeing the lonely night stretch out before her she wasn't exactly in a great hurry to get back to her room. It wasn't until she had closed the doors to the meeting room and was about to head up the stairs that she noticed that she wasn't alone.

"How did you get in here?" Paige asks Emily who was sitting at the bench in the far corner of the hall.

"Sergeant Cavenaugh let me in. Spencer still has him by the nose hairs I guess," Emily answers as she gets up from the bench she was previously occupying.

"Ew, that is an image that I will not get out of my head for a while."

"Now that you mention it," Emily says and lets out a little giggle before becoming serious again. "Can we talk? I know I freaked out a little the last time we saw one another…"

"A little?"

"Okay. More like a lot. It was just a lot of things to process at once and I tend not to be so good at that."

"I doubt anybody is really good at that."

"Are you just going to keep on filling in and what I'm saying?"

"Sorry. Yes, we should talk. Maybe not here though."

"Do you know some place?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well," Emily says looking over the the roof of the skyscraper. "I was not expecting this of you."

"What were you expecting?" she heard Paige asking behind here.

"Not...this." Emily says looking at the other woman before they both burst out laughing.

"I come here alot," Paige says once they fall silent again. "When I'm done with the Council and I don't fancy staring at the walls in my hotel room."

"Doesn't it ever feel a little sterile living there?" Emily asks.

"I don't live there. Over the week while working for the Council I have to stay there because it's close by. But on the weekends I usually take Jackson back home. I have a little house at the edge of the city. It's not much but it's all mine."

Emily is itching for questioning the other woman more about exactly who the hell Jackson is but at the last moment she decides to bite her tongue. Thinking that Hanna was right that they don't exactly live in a world where passing judgement is the most important thing anymore she decides to throw all distrust into the wind. So instead of pressing the questions that she is dying to get answers to, she decides that she'll take the initiative of being honest and just seeing where that will take them:  
"I was sad after you left. I was, I really was. I tried sending letters, finding people that were being sent to Cali to carry a message for me, but nothing ever seemed to be working. So, sooner or later I turned to somebody else for comfort."

"Another girl?"

"Yeah. Her name was Samara. We saw each other for a while, but sooner rather than later Mona pulled a particularly nasty prank on me as A, which was engineered to make Samara distrust me. She broke up with me so it worked."

Paige looks at Emily with a neutral expression before asking:

"Was she the only one?"

"No. There were… others. There was a chef in one of the barracks that we stayed over in when we made a stop in Nebraska. I thought we had a connection but it turns out she also had another connection… with her husband."

"Ouch. That has got to hurt."

"Well, maybe I just have it in for things I can't really have."

"You said others. In a plural form."

"Well, it was only a couple really. Talia over in Nebraska, and then there was Ali…"

"I'm not so sure I want to hear this."

"Well, I think you should. The reason all of my other relationships went the way they did was dishonesty. I want to be truthful to you. Ali let me kiss her, before she disappeared and way before I met you. And I thought it was this incredible gift. Once I got some distance on her I started to think that she might just have been playing me. But then when she came back and you went away with barely a goodbye. Time passed, we finished our training and then we went on that horrendous hike to get to California. And then my short lived romance with Talia went out the window and we were back on the road again and she was just there you know?"

"I'm sorry but I have a hard time picturing Alison as emotionally supportive."  
"I thought you never knew Alison…"

"Not personally. But I heard stories. She sounded like a very dynamic person. But supportive. Not that much."

"She wasn't exactly supportive. It was more like, she said all the things that I wanted to hear you know?"

"I can imagine."

"So, somewhere between here and Utah, me and Ali started happening. But it turned out to be a ruse. She was distracting me from what I should have really been concentrating on: the heist. So when Rollins and his men rushed in I was completely blindsided. I was the tactics commander. This is my speciality. We lost so many good men, just because I refused to believe that Alison would ever go behind my back."

"You couldn't have seen that coming," Paige says, looking over to Emily who already has tears forming in her eyes. "I hate her for doing that to you."

"I don't really think that she regretted it," Emily said wiping her eyes. "Regretting it would mean she cared. And I don't think she did."

The two women sat in silence for a while, with Emily trying hard to compose herself, not having expected to get so upset by enclosing the depths of Ali's betrayal. They observed the buzzing and and beeping from down below: so massive and close and somehow so far away and tiny from where they were sitting.

"Okay, that's all I got," Emily says, letting out a nervous chuckle. "And since I came clean, mind telling me why you have a little boy calling you Momma?"

"Well, that's a long story."

"We have time. Is he someone you had with an ex? That guy that came to drop him off maybe?"

"Gosh no. My dating history with boys began and ended with Sean Acker."

"I thought you just got into a food fight with him at the caféteria."

"Well, now you have cause and reaction mam."

"So, who was that guy at your door."

"That would have been my dad, Nick McCullers. Jackson goes to this prestigious military prep school in town during the week and I take care of him during the weekends."

"Wait, so you always get the weekends off?"

"That's one of the perks of being a high official. But I still go to the base a lot to help out. Take Jackson with me. He's fascinated with the larger machines."

"So, Jackson is not biologically yours?"

"No. He's not my bio child."

"So, the child of an ex?"

"Well not really. There was only one official ex since I came here. Her name was Shana. I think we both knew that she was a substitute for something I would never have again so the relationship fell apart pretty swiftly. But two years after I got relocated to California there were news of a city getting annihilated, between the border of here and Arizona, so I got sent with a resque squad to check if there were any survivors. There were two: Jackson and… Jo."

As soon as she spoke Emily picked up on how her tone changed; it became raspier, the pitch higher, like thin glass:

"Jackson was around four years old at that time that they arrived. Jo told me that his father, her husband, had died in the annihilation. Apparently they had gotten attacked by guerilla war forces. Jo and Jackson were the only ones that survived. My dad set me up to introduce them into living here in Cali. Jo used to work as a chemical engineer back in her city, so she got some work here with the military. I allowed them to live in my house, until they got settled in you know. That turned into a week, and then that week turned into a month. And before I knew it I had grown more accustomed to them being there than being alone."

"So, what happened?"

"When they had been here a little over a year we got sent together on a mission. It wasn't suppose to be a big deal. Jo had been working within city lines but we needed her with us. It was suppose to be a simple mission, locate a deserted factory, retrieve essential chemicals. But she was nervous. Said she had a bad feeling about the whole thing. I thought it was just nerves, you know? But once we got out there I had a bad feeling too. We got ambushed, it seemed like someone had used a tracker to attracts a whole horde towards us. We had to haul ass back to the truck and get the heck out of there. But in the chaos we lost Jo. It was completely unexpected. She was there one moment and gone the next. But I didn't have a choice. We had to get out of there or more people would have died."

"I understand that. Everybody would. That's what we're trained to do. In some cases there is no other choice but to do damage control."

"Well, a five year old is going to be a little less understanding. For a while he wouldn't ever look at me. I got a month off after the incident. My dad must have pulled some massive strings to get that for me but even though we didn't talk about it I think he understood that losing Jo hit me and Jackson hard. He didn't come out of his room for two weeks. When I came in he hid under the bed, so I just left him a tray of food that I would retrieve once it was empty."

"So, how did you get through to him?"

"I didn't. I worked around the house. Little projects you know. I like to keep myself busy like that. I started fixing up my bike, something that I had meant to do in ages. And one day he was just standing there in front of me. So I asked him to pass me the screwdriver, which he did. He told me that Momma J would have loved what I did to the bike. That's the first time he called me that, Momma P. Ironic, because Jo wasn't around anymore he didn't need to differentiate between us like that. But I think it was his way of coping with things. So it became a thing. Calling me Momma P. I think Jo would have liked it."

Emily leaned in closer to observe Paige's smirk, noticing a hint of something more:  
"Paige. Jo was more to you than a friend wasn't she?"

"Well," Paige says and started blushing. "Not like that. At least, not at first. We tried staying strictly professional. But then with the living-together situation we started getting kind of chummy. And I'd often take care of Jackson for her. He is the sort of running, jumping, climbing trees type of boy and I was more fit to chase after him than Jo was. She was a lot more reserved and studious so she really appreciated that I had plenty of energy to spend with him. It was during one of those days when we were chasing around on the front porch that I caught her looking at me. She was considering something. But I couldn't tell what, but I knew that whatever it was, I felt it too. When we were commanded on that mission it intensified until the night before we were leaving she climbed into my bed. We didn't really talk about it afterwards. I thought that when we got back we'd discuss things. Find out whatever this was. That sounds so dumb right now."

"No it doesn't," Emily says. "You had no idea that this was going to happen. I am so deeply sorry."

The silence stretched before the two of them before Emily found the words for the question that she simply couldn't not ask:

"Did you love her?"

"I'm not sure," Paige says, her eyes pinned to the concrete. "But I think I could have loved her you know?"

"I know."

"I'm sorry. You must think I'm such a gober. Getting sentimental about someone else while on a date with you…"

"So this is a date now?"

"Well, now that you mention it, probably not. The word just popped into my head. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. I'd like that."

"Like what?"

"To go on a date. With you. Now that all this stuff is out of the way. If you don't mind me being so frank."

"Not at all. But please, can I take you somewhere a little more upscale than a rooftop."

"You may," Emily says, before placing her hands on each side of the other woman's face and planting a kiss on her lips. "Now, will you walk me home? It's getting late."

The girls don't press for details, even with Emily slipping back into the bunker in the early hours of the night. Despite having warned Paige about it being late already, the two women couldn't help but to take a longer route, enjoying the silent presence of each other as they treaded several small paths, leading up to the barracks. The morning after they are finally receive word that they are to report to a superior commander and receive new assignments since it has been decided that they will be staying in California for a while. When they return to the barracks late in the evening after an intense day of planning, everyone is too tired and too hungry to even attempt to have a conversation. But once they get back they notice a familiar figure standing by the entrance.

"Paige," Emily says approaching the other woman who is still dressed in her uniform. "Did you just get back from the Council?"

"I did," Paige says. "And by the looks of it you've had a busy evening too. Have you eaten yet?"

"Not since noon," Emily remarks. "We've had a lot of things to catch up on after our R&R week."

"Would it be okay if I take you to dinner?"

"Can you take me to dinner to?" Hanna asks loudly, making Aria turn around and slapping her hand. "What? I'm starving!"

"Maybe another time Hanna," Emily answers, her lips cracking into a smile at the blonde's antics.

The auburn haired woman takes one look at her and her mouth becomes tense suppressing laughter as they hear Hanna dramatically rubbing her arm and producing a low wail:  
"Excellent. Do you want to get changed or should we get going right away?"

"I'm fine as I am. Let's go," Emily answers, linking her arm with hers and turning to the girls to see if they're okay with her leaving so abruptly. As she caught their eye she noticed that they were done doing the nod of approval and were already engaged in other things: Aria and Spencer grudgingly passed crumpled twenty dollar bills to Hanna who folded them into the pocket of her khakis with great jubilation.

"What did we just witness?" Paige asked who had also witnessed the exchange.

"I believe that they had a bet placed on whether I would work things out with you," Emily says, blushing a little at the thought. "And I believe that Hanna finally won something."

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Emily's first real night out in California turns out to be very memorable. Paige shows her around the dining district, which has several carts set out with vendors cooking the small dishes on open fire. They finally settle for a corner booth in a little hole in the wall, composed of a couple of carts strung together to form a sort of room.

"This is so weird," Emily remarks once they've ordered their selection of differently roasted meat along with a few salad leaves and something that looks like thick gravy.

"Is it bad weird or good weird?" Paige asks, placing a couple of meat chunks inside a leaf.

"Oh, definitely good weird. You know, back in Rosewood I always knew there existed bigger things, which had some resemblance of the old world. You know, like hotels and restaurant streets. But seeing it with my own two eyes, experiencing it, that's something else."

"I used to feel the same way when I first came here five years ago," Paige says. "But you just wait. There are so many other things that you have yet to see. Like the Night Light Street and the Pyramid Park."

"The Pyramid Park? Like, where we can play Pyramid?"

"Well, not exactly. It's a place where we go to watch other people play Pyramid. Like, you know, professional players."

"You still have professional Pyramid games? I thought that was gone with the epidemic."

"Not around here. Sure, it's not as big of a business as it used to be but there are still held games with the best and most ambitious. Most of them are from the military. Jackson loves to go, he says that someday he wants to become…" she suddenly falls silent, realizing what she has just said and choking slightly on her food as she does so.

"No, it's fine," Emily says reassuringly. "I was actually thinking that it might be a good idea if I would meet him sometimes if that's okay with you."

"Yeah, definitely. He needs to be around more people than just me, Toby and my dad. We don't have any remaining family…" Paige trails off before having a revelation. "Why don't you come with us tomorrow?"

"Are you sure? I don't want to intrude."

"You won't be intruding. I'd love to have you with us."

"Did you just ask me out again Paige McCullers?"

The other woman dips her head:

"I guess I did."

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The Pyramid Park turns out to be even bigger than Emily could have imagined. The seats that Paige got them are right at the ground level and it's hard to see who is more excited: she or Jackson. The boy quickly takes a liking to her, appreciating that she allows him to give a detailed pitch about his favorite players and their scores this season. He even makes her promise that she'll come over soon to play Pyramid with him.

"Is Jackson trying to set us up for another date?" Emily whispers to Paige, producing a snicker from her.

"I have trained him well," she responds.

Not long after that weekend is over Paige starts finding excuses to drop into the barracks to see Emily. With their re-evaluation in full flight, the training is rigorous but despite that Emily can't help but to smile every time that she sees the other woman, waiting by the entry, fiddling awkwardly with her hat and fighting desperately to maintain her composure. She takes her for a run, maintaining that she knows a solid routine that will help her receive better marks on the physical evaluation. The day after when Emily returns for her lunch break she notices a note that has been stuck to her locker.

 _Meet me for lunch? The coordinates are on the back. Do your best tactics officer._

"Always the challenger," Emily says, crumpling the note while stifling a laughter.

Once she's able to find the coordinates she also finds herself standing in front of Paige who is sat down on a quilted blanket, pointing to a backpack:

"How long did it take you?"

"Two minutes, forty three seconds," Emily says, checking her watch.

"Impressive. My bet was three minutes."

"Well, that run of yours yesterday must have worked some wonders," Emily says, sitting down with a small whimper. "At least I'm sore enough for it."

"There are different standards here in the big city," Paige says, unzipping the backpack. "But don't you worry. You'll be in top form in no time. Sandwich?"

"Thanks," Emily says, accepting the small plastic wrapped package.

Paige picks up an identical one and they spend a few moments in silence, enjoying their food while passing each other glances.

"So, tomorrow's Friday," Paige says.

"Yes, yes it is," Emily responds, smirking at the other woman's generic remark.

"So, that means you get off a little early right?" Paige asks, her eyes sparkling with surging hope. "Because my dad asked to have Jackson until Saturday and I was wondering if you would want to… go you know... You don't have to if you don't want to…"

"Are you bringing me as a goading meal to a Walker Raid?" Emily asks quirking an eyebrow at the other woman.

"No, why would I do that?" Paige asks.

"I was being ironic silly," Emily says laughing. "And yes I would love to."

"But I haven't told you where I was asking you to yet," Paige says confused.

"I don't care. I'll be with you and that's what matters," Emily says before planting a kiss on the other woman's lips. "Now how many more of those do I need to give you to put a stop to your nervous rambling?"

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That Friday night Emily senses an air of nervousness around Paige when she comes to the Barracks to pick her up. She is neither wearing her uniform nor the running gear this time, but instead donning slim fitting pants and a ripped denim west along with some combat boots.

"You look nice," Emily remarks as she walks up to the other woman, combing a braided lock behind her ear.

"It's a little more me than the Council Uniform. It feels like a costume that doesn't really fit. You're not so bad yourself," Paige throws right back at her. "But where did you get it? Your outfit I mean. I'm pretty sure that wasn't in the inventory for your cargo train."

"Hanna has been doing some needle work in her spare time. Turns out she is good at preparing more things than just gear. So where are you taking me?"

"Some place that I think you might like," Paige responds. "Come one, we have a bit of a walk ahead of us."

The place they end up in is the Night Light District, with Paige skimming the street up and down, as if she's looking for something.

"Here," she says, grabbing Emily's hand stealthily. "Next to the overpass. Hurry."

They both duck underneath a boulder and through a small passageway that she would never had seen if Paige had not been leading her towards it. After crossing a slim hallway and to a heavy wooden door, guarded by a stocky woman with a cropped haircut. Paige gives her a nod, making it clear to Emily that this is not the first time that she has been here, and then turns towards her as the woman pushes to door open and steps aside:  
"Shall we?"

The room that they walk into somehow seems to be bigger than the space that is allocated for you; it's a darkly lit space, furnished with a couple of antique looking couches in the back and a bar smack in the middle of the room in front of what seems to be a dance floor. Cheerful music booms from a record player in the corner and is cast back from the corners of the room which seems to be designed to allow excellent flow of sound.

"How is it… what is this place?" Emily asks staring wide eyed around her.

"It used to be part of a church before the epidemic but it got buried in an explosion so it got built over with the railway. You can sometimes hear passing trains. Like now," Paige says, pausing momentarily while a thundering noise vibrates through the walls. "There are open air pockets so the place is still viable, but unless you know where to find this place you wouldn't know it's here. Wait here, I'll get us a drink."

While Paige is away Emily takes a further look around the room, noting that since she passed through the doors she has not seen a single man. And more surprisingly she notices that some of the women are getting a little more than friendly, dancing close up to each other and she can even swear that she catches a couple smooching on the couches in the back.

"Here you go," Paige says, swooping back next to Emily and handing her a tall glass of light brown liquid. "It's homebrewed cider." she adds when she sees Emily's puzzled look. "Sometimes it's sort of good, sometimes it's sort of bad. It's not as good as Mona's homebrew but it's something. And you're not wondering about the drink that I got you, are you?"

"Is this… Paige, where in the world are we?"

"I came across it when I was dating Shana," Paige admits. "She took me here a couple of times. It's not exactly the kind of place that you come across by chance."

"You seem to have done a lot of things with this Shana person…" Emily mutters, suddenly feeling very self conscious.

"Emily, believe it or not, the only thing that I could think about was that I would love to take you here, thus became the substitute problem.." she trails off awkwardly. "I know it's only been a couple of weeks Emily and we don't exactly have a problem free history, but I feel like what we have is the real deal. And I want that, no matter how difficult it might be. I don't want to be someone that ends up with…"

"...mushy squash," Emily adds.

"Now look who's finishing whose sentences," Paige says with a smirk, having regained some of her confidence. "And what in the world is mushy squash?"

"Not you," Emily says. "Now come on. I want to dance with you."

Their dance quickly turns into another one, and soon enough Paige is ordering them another round because their glasses are empty and they are both parched from their smustle. Emily can't help but to enjoy the place, despite knowing that Paige came here with Shana first, because despite all of that they seem to have entered some alternative universe. For the first time she can touch Paige without having to check to see if anybody is looking. They can hold each other while they dance, passing intense gazes, in a crowd of people while still being invisible. Emily finally musters heading for the bar herself and repays Paige by getting them the next round, going for an amber colored bottle which gets poured into small glasses and goes down like fire with a side of peach. The strong liquid seems to fill her with courage because as she hears the music settling into a slower rhythm she grabs the other woman's hands and draws her back to the dance floor before placing one of her hand on her hip and squeezing the other one reassuringly:

"I used to read these cheesy romance novels someone forgot at the Barracks back in Rosewood and I would fantasize about getting to dance like that," she admits.

"So, is this living up to your expectations?" Paige asks with a grin.

"Even better," Emily says, leaning up to the other woman's ear. "But this time I don't need to genderbend it in my head."

"Well, I can relate," Paige says, lowering her word to almost a whisper. "When I was a kid I used to dress up in my dad's clothes sometimes because I thought that maybe if I was a boy then people would be okay with me wanting to kiss girls."

Emily can't help but to chuckle, picturing Paige in oversized men's clothes:  
"Well, I have some stories to tell of me as well. Would you like to hear something funny?"

"I would love to hear something funny."

"As crazy as it might sound, when I was trying to talk myself into being interested in boys, I would look for guys like you."

"Guys like me how?" Paige asks, dipping her head, obviously humbled by the comment.

"You know, guys that challenge me to do stuff that I wouldn't do by myself, like playing insanely competitive Pyramid or drag me to a secret hide-out club so they could kiss me in public."

"And to think that I haven't even taken advantage of that opportunity," Paige says, leaning in.

Their lips touch and Emily revels in the gentle enthusiasm of the other woman as the kiss quickly deepens. Before she knows it they have completely forgotten about the beat they were swaying to and are instead busy with smooching in a more intense manner than she would have ever thought that she would make out with anyone in public, let alone a woman. They momentarily break away from each other, catching their breath and realizing that they have become completely entangled in each other's arms.

"Take me home," Emily says.

"Oh," Paige says, the disappointment in her voice not going unnoticed. "If you insist."

"No, not like that," Emily exclaims, not being able to resist giggling at Paige's oblivious expression. "Take me to your home silly!"

The other woman doesn't need to be told twice as she promptly grabs Emily's hand and starts heading for the exit. Once they are outside they relax their grip a little and Paige waves down one of the three wheeled bicycle wagons.

"Where to?" the lanky looking driver asks them once they have hopped into the backseat.

"How far can you take us?" Paige asks.

"As long as you can pay me."

The rider ends up dropping them off in a remote neighbourhood and bids them goodnight after being handed a hefty sum along with a generous tip, before pedalling back into the night.

"You weren't lying when you said it was remote," Emily remarks as they walk to the end of the street, feeling that it is remote enough to put her arms around the other woman.

"That's the best part," Paige says, fishing the keys out of her pocket before opening a complicated set of locks. "At the center I always feel like I have a role to act, it's like a game of cloak and dagger where you never really know where you stand. Here I can just sort of unwind, work on my projects and just be myself you know."

"I know what you mean," Emily says accepting Paige's offer to step inside once the mechanism is taken care of. "I used to play Pyramid all the time with my dad on this court outside of the Barracks. When he would go on trips I would sneak in there to train so I could show him my new moves when he got back."

"You mean to tell me that you were an expert in Pyramid all along and left me to embarrass myself?" Paige asks half playful, half serious.

"You never asked," Emily answers, cupping the other woman's cheeks. "You just assumed that you were unbeatable."

"You devious little minx you," Paige says leaning into a kiss.

Emily responded vigorously, running her hands up the other woman's lapels. They slowly move back, stepping lightly, not unlike how they swayed on the dancefloor before. Their pace is somewhat different than it was the week before, with the two women taking their time taking off each other's garments instead of peeling them off like there was an angry horde on their heels. The moon shines through a crack in the curtains and she takes a moment to look at the woman before her who looks at her mesmerized while gently tracing lines across her collarbone. Her touches are exploring and tentative, boarding on timid, but as Emily's breath quickens, Paige's confidence seems to grow with it. There is such precision in the way that she is pressing against her and as Emily pushes back into her touch they settle into a soothing rhythm set to the cadence of their breaths. The intensity builds up and before she knows it she is grasping at Paige's shoulder as she feels her body tightening up before collapsing onto the mattress, held tightly by the auburn haired woman. After basking in the jubilation of the afterglow Emily breaks the silence:

"That was quite something. I assume you are as competitive in the bedroom department as you are in Pyramid?"

"I might be," Paige says, snickering a little before planting a kiss on the raven haired woman. "I hope I haven't exhausted you."

"Exhausted?" Emily says, quirking an eyebrow before grabbing the other woman before skillfully flipping her over, putting them in a reverse position than the one they had found themselves in on the court so many years ago. "We're just getting started."

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Emily feels herself being tapped awaken by a rapping noise that has found its way into her dreamless sleep. Once she is sitting up she notices that it's barely dawn and that Paige is already out of bed and scrambling to get her clothes on.

"Don't get up," Paige says. "I'll take care of it, whatever it is."

"Do you think Jackson might be back early?" Emily asks rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"I don't think so," Paige says, girdling her belt. "They were going to go Pyramid training at the park so they shouldn't be done this early. It's probably just something that needs my signature or something."

She kisses Emily reassuringly before exiting the bedroom, leaving the raven haired woman to look around in the room. She pulls on a shirt and some pants before sliding out of the bed to look at a camera equipment that is lying on a bookshelf at the other end of the room.

"No way. I always wanted one of those," Emily says, picking the polaroid camera up before noticing a stack of photos lying underneath it.

Without giving it much thought, she absentmindedly starts flicking through them. She smiles at the sight of a photo of Paige and Jackson smiling, all muddied up from playing Pyramid. Another one has Paige and Toby, dressed in camouflage and striking silly poses and giving each other bunny ears. When sitting down on the bed she comes across a photo of someone she doesn't quite recognize; she has messy, blonde hair and is wearing an oversized shirt and is striking a relaxed pose on a lawn chair in what Emily realizes is the front porch of the house she is now staying in. She feels a burning sensation of jealousy spread in her torso as she realizes from the way that the woman smiles in a friendly way to the person taking the picture that this must have been Jo.

"I guess you really could have loved one another, huh?" Emily said to herself.

She hears a ruckus at the door and turns around to find Paige standing at the door.

"I'm sorry, I had no right to be snooping around," Emily says, quickly gathering the photos and putting them under the camera again.

"It's okay, it's fine," Paige says, before clearing her throat. "There is a situation, I think you should be brought up to speed on. They sent a messenger with this."

 **Emergency R.V. Loc: HQ 542A. Squad has been notified. Srgt. Cavanaugh is assembling Squad Calwood5.**

"That's my squad," Emily says. "Why do they need our input?"

"I don't know," Paige says, crumpling the paper into her pocket. "But you should probably be there when they send out for you."

"Do we wait for a car to be sent or what do we do?"

"No time for that," Paige says grabbing a set of keys from a bowl on the nightstand. "Come on."

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"So, you woke me up at the asscrack of dawn to tell me that you spent the night at Paige's house and that she dumped you off here on a motorcycle?" Hanna asks, leaning into a long stretch followed by a lengthy yawn.

"No. Well, yes, that did happen too," Emily admits, combing hair back from her face she recalls the breeze that ran through it as she held tight onto Paige while she skillfully navigated the smaller streets in order to get them back to the Barracks as quickly as possible. "She just got an emergency message. Our squad will be called in shortly so you need to wake Aria and Spencer."

"What for?" Hanna asks. "I thought we still had some R&R time left."

"We did. But something must have happened. So I'll go get our gear ready if you get Spence and Aria."

"Better change out of those clothes then," Hanna says, passing Emily a wink before walking towards the sleeping quarters. "I don't remember lending you the leather jacket though."

"That's because you didn't," Emily mumbles as she opens up her locker before taking off the padded bomber jacket and hanging it carefully up.

 _"I should give this back to you."_

 _"Nah. Just give it back the next time I see you. It will keep you warm."_

"You keep me warm," she says to herself before getting a change of clothes out and heading for the gear chest.

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Once inside the headquarters Emily's squad gets briefed that suspicious activity has been spotted outside the city gates in an area where there has been no reports of human activity before.

"It's definitely human activity," Caleb reports. "I have been looking over the recorded sightings that the surveillance helicopter caught and the last time I checked a walker is not capable of controlling a vehicle, and an armed one at that."

"But why are we being sent for?" Spencer asks, and all though she feigns annoyance Emily can hear that she is glad to be back in the saddle.

"Because, it was one of the trucks from your cargo train," Toby responds and the two of them pass an intense glance before breaking the gaze in favour of staying professional.

"But what if it's a trap?" Aria says overlooking the reports of the sighting. "It sure does spell decoy."

"That's where Sergeant Cavanaugh and McCullers come in," Sergeant Major McCullers responds. "They will ghost you but stay far enough behind so that if this is an ambush we have your backs."

"So we're being set up like a large, dangling steak in front of these bastards," Spencer mumbles. "That's just great."

"Stop it," Hanna shoots back.

"Am I making you nervous?" Spencer whispers provocatively.

"No, you're making me hungry. Let's get this over with so we can get breakfast."

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The girls are silent as their truck rumbles through the destroyed roads towards the co-ordinates where the activity was spotted. Emily stares at the screen, following the little dots on the screen before her, going over her last moments at the base in her mind.

 _"Be careful out there, okay?" Emily said as Paige zipped up her camouflage gear._

 _"I'm always careful," Paige answered, trying to still her voice as Emily cupped her cheek after having checked to make sure no unwanted personnel was around. Hanna was busying herself preparing their gear somewhere in the background but when she noticed the ambiance she gave the two women a polite smile and moved into the far corner of the room. "It's you who I'm worried about."_

 _"I won't let anything happen this time," Emily said. "To me or my girls."_

 _"That's good. Because you know, dad told me that Jackson has been talking non stop about you and he really needs someone to beat him at Pyramid that isn't me so he won't get too cocky."_

 _Emily laughed at the comment:  
"I'm glad I'm making such a huge impression."_

 _"You've made impression on more than just him. Listen Emily, whatever this is we can figure that out later. Stay concentrated, stay focused. I don't want you to get into risky situations on my part."_

 _"I should go," Emily said, hoisting her rucksack on her shoulder._

 _"I love you," Paige blurted out suddenly and both women were froze in place because of the sudden declaration. "I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from. I don't expect you to say it back. It just happened somehow. Don't think about it too much. Just stay safe."_

 _"I will. Your love will keep me safe."_

"Focus Fields," Emily tells herself, snapping back into concentration.

"Did you say something Em?" Aria asks, looking over, her arms at the ready.

"No, it's nothing," Emily says, looking in closer at the screen. "We're closing in."

"You guys," Spencer chimes in from the driver's seat. "I think they're heading our way. Hang on!"

The truck swerves and the girls grab a hold in order not to get knocked around by the sheer force.

"Move move move," Emily orders, directing the girls to exit the truck from the back in order to keep cover in case the driver or passengers of the truck might be armed.

The girls huddle up behind cover, taking quick glances at the other truck but not registering any movement.

"Exit the truck with your hands in the air!" Emily screams, signaling Aria and Hanna to silently move to the backside of the other truck in order to raid it while Spencer stays hidden in the driver's seat of the truck. "We are not going to harm you if you show co-operation! We are here to aid innocent survivors of the Walkers!"

She notices a small commotion in the driver seat and the door is pushed slightly ajar before someone collapses onto the ground with a heavy thud.

Emily hears Hanna yell out "Clear!" before she slowly approaches the place where the person is lying in a heap. She has her weapon ready, but at the moment she has problems seeing how the person that's lying like a sack of flour on the sandy ground could pose any sort of threat to them. She pokes their shoulder with the toe of her boot.

"Hey, can you speak?"

There is a small movement and Emily is jumps back, brandishing her piece. Hanna and Aria have gotten behind her after having checked the rest of the truck for any sign of life and she feels Spencer's gaze from the truck, carefully monitoring the situation. The person looks up with difficulty, inhaling with great difficulty before opening their mouth.

"Help me," Alison DiLaurentis says through cracked lips, blood trickling from a gash on her head before she collapses again, leaving the girls speechlessly gasping in a complete state of shock.


	5. Only Lovers Left Alive PV

**Author's Notes I: So there we have it, all 12000+ words of what will be the final chapter of this story that started out as a one shot. I know that the hiatus between this and the fourth part has been incredibly long and I'd just like to thank you, the person who is reading this, for still tuning in. I hope you will find that this last piece in the story lives up to your expectations.**

The weeks after the girls reunite with Alison with the latter tumbling out of an army vehicle seem to pass away in a blur. They responded to the emergency, of course, by rushing her into their truck and alerting HQ that they were heading back to base. Aria grabbed the wheel and Spencer jumped into the back where they had deposited Ali on some stretchers.

"Em, Hanna, take the other truck!" Spencer commanded hastily while opening up her medic kit.

"But we can't leave her," Hanna said, covering her mouth as she looked over the other blonde's lifeless body.

"Han, there could be someone trailing us and we stand a better chance with two trucks. If you want to help her you'll do as I tell you."

"Spence is right," Emily said, grabbing Hanna's shoulder. "We have a better chance with two sets of wheels. Let's go!"

Once they got back to base, Ali was rushed into the emergency ward. The four girls tried chasing after her but were stopped by a couple of army personnel.

"Let us go!" Aria demanded. "She is hurt! We need to look after her!"

"Emily!" somebody shouted and the woman turned around to find Paige standing behind her.

"Paige," Emily yelled running to the other woman. "You have to do something. They just took Ali away."

"They are helping her Em," Paige said.

"No they're not. They won't!" Emily said frantically. "They are going to hurt her!"

"Em, calm down. Think logically," Paige said, grabbing the other woman's trembling hands. "She could offer vital information as to wherever she came from and is of no use to anyone if she dies. I was asked to come here to fetch you and your squad. You need to report back about what happened."

"I don't think I can do that right now," Emily said, her lip starting to tremble.

"Em, look at me. I'll tell you this now because in a few moments I'll have to get all official on you, calling you Sergent Fields and all that jazz, so you need to listen to me right now. You want to help Ali? To find out what this is all about?"

"Of course."

"Then follow protocol. File your reports, tick all the boxes. Do your job."

Emily snaps back into focus, looking at her friends across the table. They are finishing a briefing, as if going over the information for the umpfteenth time is going to get them any closer to a solution. A very regretful Alison has spent the last couple of weeks wheeling out information, that is after she got out of intensive care. She has told them about how Rollins came to her rescue when she fled Rosewood that fateful night many years ago:

 _"He was so charming. Like a white knight on a horse. But I guess that I only saw what I wanted to see," she said, fresh tears forming in her eyes. "He told me that he was researching a cure and that the military was trying to halt his efforts because they wanted control more than they wanted a cure. He brought me to stay with his guerilla army but after a couple of years he told me that I would be of more use as a cell inside the military, since I had held such high rank in the training program before my disappearance. So I went back, pretended that I had spent the last two years on the run and you all ate it up. It took me five years to work to a position where he told me I could do what I came back to Rosewood to do. He wanted to hijack Mona's research and the move of the material to Cali opened up the perfect window for it."_

 _"If your guy is such a Messiah, then why did you risk your life fleeing him?" Spencer asked, the bitterness in her voice not lost on anyone in the room._

 _"A couple of weeks after I was back in the guerilla base, I found out that Rollins was not all that he was cracked up to be. One night I wanted to surprise him so I snuck into his laboratory only to find that he wasn't there and I came across some files. Reading over it I realized that he isn't trying to find a cure but rather using the same material to develop a new branch of the Walker Virus where most of people's cerebral functions are shut down but they still remain open to suggestions."_

 _"My gods," Aria muttered. "He wants to turn people into…"_

 _"Into his slaves," Alison finished the other woman's sentence. "I also found some tapes. Interrogation tapes. He was… torturing people. I recognized one of the girls in the video. It was the one whose body he was getting rid of the night that I met him. He told me that she had belonged to his army and gotten killed in the line of duty. He put her in my grave to help with the cover story that I had been murdered and buried in a shallow grave. But that wasn't the case at all. He had kidnapped her from some town where he suspected that they were developing a cure. His notes remarked that eventually she had given him information that eventually allowed him to annihilate that town but that he was no further to getting what he wanted since all the evidence was destroyed in the process. I was looking over a second tape where he claimed to the camera to have found a survivor, willing myself to watch it before I was going to try and make a run for it. That's when he caught me."_

 _"If he caught you, how come you're still here with us?" Hanna asked. "You told us that you even found reports that he was the one that sent deserter Lyndon James to kill private St. Germain just because she had found some clues to the fact that your death had been doctored with. Why would he just let you go?"_

 _"He didn't. I escaped. But not until he managed to do this to me," Allison said, pulling the sleeve of her hospital gown, showing a puncture wound. "It's not his desired Walker strain, but it's one of the working samples. The doctors have told me that it's like the regular Walker Virus, but slow working. I will still have a couple of weeks before I convert. And they plan to pump me for information until the very moment that I expire. Which is what I deserve I suppose. I can't survive Rollin's virus strain, but if I give you enough information I might just be able to survive him…"_

"Hey Em, are you okay?" Spencer asks, gathering her files.

"Yeah sure, just thinking about the work ahead," she answers.

"Are you going to Paige's tonight?"

"I think so yeah."

"Want me to take you there?"

"Sure."

"Hey Spence, won't you come have a drink with me and Hanna?" Aria asks.

"I'm going to drive Em over to Paige's place," Spencer answers.

"Oooo, taking advantage of the weekend are we?" Hanna asks, making a blush creep into Emily's face.

"Shut up," Emily says, pushing her shoulder. "You're always getting ideas into your head."

"No ideas," Hanna says, throwing her hands up in the air.

"It's just good to see you happy Em. After everything that's gone down you deserve it," Aria says and grabs Hanna's shoulder. "Ready to go Han?"

They say their goodbyes and she gets into a truck with Spencer. They drive in silence for a while, with Spencer staring focused onto the road.

"Want to tell me what this is really about Spence?" Emily finally asks. "And don't tell me that you need to concentrate on the road. After the stuff that we've driven through you could do this route with your eyes closed."

"I don't know what you mean," Spencer argues. "I just wanted to give you a ride. I know you enjoy spending your weekends with her."

"So, no ulterior motives?"

"None whatsoever."

"Like not the fact that she and Toby have been meeting an awful lot in the same neighborhood by that abandoned lot?"

Spencer lets out a sigh, looking defeated:  
"I thought I was being so stealthy."

"You were. Unfortunately I am stealthier. What are you so worried about? Don't you trust him?"

"I do. I do. It's not that. It's just…. I don't like secrets Em. I have spent the biggest part of my life watching them tear me and the people I love apart. So I'm going to put an end to it. If he has to hide more things for me I don't think I should be seeing him anymore."

Some time later they arrive at Paige's street and park the car next to her house, walking over to the lot where they've been slouching around the last couple of nights. Toby is there, along with Paige and Jackson who is running around the front lawn. The two adults are in the middle of a conversation and seem startled when the two women walk straight up to them.

"Hey," Paige says, regaining her composure. "Didn't see you there. How are you doing Spence…"

She trails off as she sees the other woman's concentrated expression.

"What's going on?" she asks Emily, puzzled.

"We should go Paige," Emily says and grabs the other woman's hand.

"If you say so. Come on Jackson," Paige says and ushers the small boy to approach them.

As they walk towards their house, the boy is buzzing with excitement:  
"You think she'll like it Mamma P?"

"No. I think she'll love it," Paige says.

"What are you talking about?" Emily asks puzzled.

"Won't you sit down with me?" Paige asks, patting the lawn chair next to her. "Jackson, do you want to find a book for us to read before bed?"

"Can I pick any book?"

"Any book that you want," Paige says and ruffles his hair before he sprints into the house. "Hey, but that means the shelves that you can reach. And climbing doesn't count as reaching. Just because you could doesn't mean you should!"

Emily laughs at the last remark before sitting down:

"So, can you please tell me what that whole thing with Toby was about?"

"Well. What were Spencer's theories?"

"At first she was wondering if Toby was being unfaithful but I assured her that if that was the case it was with somebody that wasn't you," Emily says giggling, thinking back to the debate that she had with the other woman once she had dropped the pretense on their way there. "So, what was it really about?"

"Well," Paige says taking a seat. "Since Toby joined me in Cali he has been busying himself an awful lot outside of work. He got a hold of a lease for that lot down the street, with some well received help from me and my string pulling. He has been working on it every chance he gets."

"So, he's moved in there then?" Emily asks, sitting next to the other woman.

"Not yet. He still resides at the barracks. The house was a dream of a sort. A vision. He told me about how he and Spencer would talk about it back in Rosewood, building a home together. So when he came here he wasn't sure if he was ever going to see her again. Heck, he wasn't even sure that if he were to see here again if she would ever forgive him for what he had to do to get Mona here. But what he knew was that if those two things were to happen he wanted to offer her the only thing that she had dared to hope for."

"And the reason why you've been there the last couple of days?" Emily asks.

"The water heater had some kinks to work out and he needed my help to sort it out," Paige says with a smirk forming on her face.

"You're gloating at the fact that you're better than him at something, aren't you?"

"Yes ma'am," Paige responds and the two women let out such a hefty bout of laughter that they barely notice Jackson slithering back to the porch.

"I was starting to think you'd read yourself to sleep little man," Paige says, getting up. "Did you find a book for us to read?"

Jackson nods, revealing a large picture book from behind his back: "It was stuck underneath one of the table legs. Took me forever to find it."

"Yeah, lucky you were able to find it. No idea how it could have gotten there," Paige says, giving Emily a look that implies that she knows exactly how that might have happened. "It's the one with the long descriptions isn't it buddy? I'll tell you what, if Em here helps us with some of the lines we might be able to get through it sometime before tomorrow."

It isn't long before Jackson is fast asleep and Paige tucks him in tighter before signaling the other woman that they can sneak outside. Once the bedroom door has been safely shut she motions the raven haired woman to the kitchen where she grabs two bottles, handing one of them to her:

"Mona and Lucas have been messing around with home brewing. It's better than the stuff you'll find in the Overpass," she remarks, twisting her bottle open.

They clang their bottles together and both take a sip. Emily toys with hers, not really sure about how to proceed:

"Paige, I want to ask you something. And before you ask, no, this doesn't have anything to do with Toby. You once told me that you didn't know Ali but that you had known of her..."

"Yes. She used to take some classes at the elite academy because of her exam results so we had brushed elbows. Why?"

"Because the other day when I was visiting her…"

"You visit her now?"

"Yes. She's not just some guinea pig that we can pump for information Paige. She's a human being."

"She betrayed you Em."

"Because she trusted someone who she thought she loved. I've been there too. But my point is that she asked me about the fact that I'm seeing you. When I told her that I was she said that apart from defeating Rollins, what she wanted most before she died was to tell you that she's sorry."

Paige is silent for a moment, looking down and holding her bottle so tightly that her knuckles turn white. When she speaks again her voice is so low that Emily almost doesn't catch what she's saying:  
"I was hoping you'd never have to hear about that. Even when I thought I was never going to see you again. I was afraid what you'd think of me."

"Paige, listen to me. Alison was my friend and I still care what happens to her, even after what she's done. But I still care about you. I… I love you and I've done so for a long time. Even before you left for California. And I think I never really stopped. I couldn't forget about you. But something Spencer told me on our way here got me thinking. We can't be together if we're not going to be honest with each other. Keeping secrets will tear us apart, no matter the reason that you use to justify it to yourself. So whatever it is that you're not telling me it can't be worse than the fact that you're keeping it from me. Please."

"We'll see about that," Paige says, taking a large swig and wiping her mouth before continuing. "I did know Ali back in Rosewood. More than that. I knew her enough to hate her. She got her father to pull some strings to sign her onto my school's Pyramid team even though she wasn't attending full time."

"I remember her bragging to us about that. She didn't want to leave our academy but she wanted in on that team, like really bad."

"My dad was furious when I told him that I would be competing with her. Said that the DiLaurentis were always pulling strings, getting special treatment and this was just Mr. DiLaurentis' way to show off. He told me that I had to outscore her and I got really competitive. It was just a dumb game but we got in a bit of a scuffle. We were both put on latrine duties for a month after that and kicked out of the team. Did she ever tell you that?"

"She just told me that it was some girl's fault who she called Pigskin," Emily says, noticing how the other woman cringes at the nickname. "And she said that after she was done with her she would wish she never existed."

"That she did."

"Paige, what did she do to you?" Emily asks, leaning in to look at the other woman who doesn't even dare to meet her eye.

"She really has a talent for reading people. I'll give her that," Paige says, laughing humorlessly before continuing. "I don't think I'll ever know how she found out. I hadn't even admitted it to myself back then. How I'm you know...like you."

"That you like women," Emily says. "You can say it Paige. It's not going to jump at you and feast on your flesh."

"You came by one day," Paige mutters, her head bowed. "To meet your father after one of the courses he was teaching. I saw you. I remember. I couldn't take my eyes off you. Kept asking myself how I could never have seen you before, right before I started scolding myself for even thinking that so I looked away. But I couldn't stay away. I would find any excuse to spend more time with him, running errands, taking extra trainings, asking him to teach me some moves in Pyramid because it might mean that I'd catch a glimpse of you afterwards even if I hated myself for wanting you in that way. She must have caught me doing it one day when we were attending our class together because some time later I found a note hidden in my bunker. It explained that you had somehow found out who I was and that you had noticed me looking at you. At first I was terrified that you thought that I was some kind of a creep but the note explained that you were having some feelings about me and were hoping that I felt the same way about you. It also gave me directions on how to reply to your note. I followed the instruction, taping my response to the back of an old water tank like you instructed me to do. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but the next couple of days I felt something new. I was a nervous wreck but at the same time I felt better than I had for a long time: I didn't feel so alone anymore."

"It's good that you were trying to come to terms with how you felt," Emily says, feeling dread rising in her stomach. "But Paige, I didn't write that letter."

"Yeah. I found out that much in the next few days" Paige responds, her voice becoming raspier. "Ali came to find me one day after class. She wasn't throwing insults at me which I found odd. She was nice, almost friendly even, but there was something unsettling about it. It was like some sweet, sticky substance that you can't get off of you. Like she was covering me in honey to leave me for the insects. And then she got out the letter and I recognized my handwriting. She told me that I was never to set foot near her or any of her friends because from this day onwards she owned me."

"Oh Paige, I had no idea," Emily says, covering her mouth in horror.

"How could you? I took every precaution after that. I dropped the classes that she was attending at my academy. I didn't even sign up for the next Pyramid team tryout. Because if she would have made what I wrote in that letter public I could have lost everything. They don't look too kindly on people like us."

"I know," Emily says, clasping their hands together. "That must have been awful."

"It was," Paige says, a small tear glistening down her cheek. "I just felt so completely alone. Of course she would sometimes swing by the barracks because she was friends with some of the older boys in my squad. But now when she taunted me I couldn't push back because she had her secret weapon. Eventually though, I didn't care what she did to me because I was willing to much worse to myself. I hated myself. The only reason why I didn't just end it was because I felt that then she would have finally won me somehow. But still, I just wanted to disappear. But then she did instead and I thought that all that stuff was behind me. And then you came back to my life and I almost couldn't believe how lucky I was. I wasn't sorry that she was gone. I was happy if anything. When she became back I thought it was karma catching up to me for being…"

"The way that we are," Emily finishes her sentence. "I used to think that for the longest time too. I would take blame for every little thing that went wrong, thinking that if I was just like everybody else things would be different. Is this why you left for California and cut me off?"

"I knew how you had felt about her before she went away," Paige says, dipping her head, sounding defeated. "And I also knew that I couldn't compete with her because she could just drag that letter back into daylight. But this time it could bring you down with me. And I couldn't do that to you. So I had to leave, for both of us, even if that meant that you would hate me. Gosh I was such a coward."

"I don't hate you Paige," Emily says, grasping the other woman's head in her hands, giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "And you're not a coward. I think you're very brave. You survived. Come on, let's go to bed."

She stands up, grabbing the other woman's hand, leading her into the bedroom. Once they are inside and the door has been closed they come crashing together, just like they've done before. But this time it's different, Emily decides, as she breaks away to flick on a lamp on the bedside table.

"I want to see you," she says looking at the other woman, not even taking her eyes off of her as she strips her shirt off, throwing it into a corner. "And I want you to see me."

The auburn haired woman looks up, swallowing hard before meeting her eye.

"I won't judge you Paige," she continues, freeing the other woman of her shirt. She notices a new scar, stretching across her abdomen and dipping down to her waistline. It's not one that Emily recognizes from the time that Paige had bared all to her back in other woman grabs her right hand and places her index finger at the upper end of the scar:

"When we lost Jo, I started going to that place again. I had Jackson to take care of so of course I had to keep it together, but one night when I was feeling so torn up inside I did this, because it somehow felt better to see it, the pain that I was so overwhelmed with, right there on my body."

Emily traces the scar until her finger has landed underneath the other woman's pantline and without even giving it another thought she dips down and places a kiss on it before turning her head back up, meeting Paige's eye:  
"I understand."

And just like that she slips her left hand underneath the other side of her pants, right on her hip bone. She looks at the other woman, her eyes full of question. Paige responds wordlessly, grabbing the raven haired woman's face and pulling her upwards, making them stand facing each other but her hands still posed on her hips. She leans forward, capturing her in a hungry kiss, and Emily feels her hands sliding down, unbuttoning her trousers. She doesn't need any more prompting and pulls them down. Paige kicks them off before pushing Emily back with her body. She falls back into the bed, her feet knocking on the feet of the bed, but she pays no attention to that as she feels the weight of the other woman mounting her. Their mouths meet again and she feels herself almost getting devoured, their mouths doing a skilled, ravenous dance.

From the time that Emily has made acquaintance with the other woman she has known many sides of her but this is something new entirely. For the rest of their time together, when they are with one another in this way the auburn haired woman has been submissive, almost begging. But now she is on top of her, taking in every inch, kissing her neck and collar bone hungrily and without shame. The rest of their clothing come wriggling off, they struggle a bit with the undergarment. It gets awkward for a while as they knock against some furniture which elicits giggle from both of them. She enjoys how the other woman seems completely at ease, without care, without any thought that isn't concentrated on what's in front of her. Before long they have become even further entangled with one another, Emily thrusting her hand forward as the other woman straddles her with vigour, heaving passionately as tension builds noticeably in her body. Their movements are synchronized but even with their steady fast pace neither of them shows any intention of ending the encounter quickly. They face one another and Emily feels the wanting from the other woman as she stares into her eyes, not ever attempting to look away. The brightness in the room shifts as the moon is revealed from the heavy clouds and joins the lamp in providing illumination. Their shadows dance on the wall as Paige quickens her pace, her breathing becoming ragged and her hands clasping Emily's shoulders almost painfully. She finally releases a loud gasp and comes undone right before her eyes, slumping down in the other woman's lap who attempts to slowly withdraw her hand. She blocks her exit, grabbing her hand and allowing it to rest on her center.

"Stay… with me," she looks at the raven haired woman, pleadingly, looking almost shy after her exposing herself so completely.

Emily reaches out with her other hand, grabbing a handful of damp, auburn locks and

combing them behind her ear before pressing her lips against the other woman's:

"Always."

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The following week things turn to a different pace which in a very strange way feels normal somehow even if it's completely different from anything the four girls have known during their lifetime. Paige returns to the Council and Emily finds herself going the distance to be at the door of her room every night, ready to spend the night and wake up early the next morning in order to show up at the barracks. The other girls present no protest, partly because they all seem to have accepted the situation but mostly because they have all moved on to other things rather than spending their nights at the bunk. Spencer and Toby have started moving into the house that he built for them and Emily can't help but notice that every time that the slim, brown haired woman returns in the morning, clasping hand with the strongly jawed man, she has a different look to her than she used to have before, a glow of a sort. Hanna spends most of her nights in Caleb's hospital wing who seems to be miraculously making a full recovery despite having taken a bullet to the chest and they even spot Aria wandering from the base at the end of the day with a long haired, bearded man, that Emily thinks bear a strong resemblance to the son of God that her parents used to teach her so much about as a child. However the tiny brunette tells them that she is not ready to talk about what is happening yet and they respect her wishes, knowing that they have all been in that situation at some point in time.

Despite their changed living situation they all still visit Alison regularly, prompting doctors about the small chance of her recovering, only to see them pessimistically shaking her head. Even though the Walker virus she has is slow acting, she will succumb to it sooner rather than later and she herself has opted for the mercy procedure, which means that a thin metal collar has been locked to her neck and will pierce her jugular vein the moment that it does not pick up a pulse anymore. The only procedure that could possibly prolong her life would be a blood transmission, but as they all know it is military law that no such measures is to be taken when it comes to people that have been exposed to the virus. For there are many other wounded whose life will be spared permanently with blood transmission, and not only for the few days or weeks that it would take the virus to take over the healthy, fresh dose of blood coursing through the infected veins.

Emily finds herself sometimes seated next to the blond woman's bed, conversing about things of old. Ali has given all the information that can be useful and therefore they spend most of their time discussing mundane things. They talk about silly games that they used to play, the boys that would chase them around back in Rosewood and how they talked about foreign places that they wished to see one day.

"You just might get around to it," Alison remarks.

"What do you mean?" Emily asks, noticing how the blonde as suddenly become serious.

"You might live to see the end of this thing Em. I, however, most definitely will not."

Emily is silent. Angry as she is with everything that Alison has done, she does not wish for her to die. Her mind still searches desperately for a solution, a way that she could be saved somehow.

"I know what you're thinking," Alison says, breaking the silence. "And you need to stop. It's not going to change anything. But I want you to promise me something."

"Anything."

"If you ever see the end of this I want you to go. Travel. See the world that we were always talking about. It's still out there. And do it with someone that you care about."

"By that I'm guessing that you mean Paige?" Emily asks.

"You know Em, the cruelest thing I ever did to you was not just making you suffer with my silly games. What was even worse than that was that I kept you from finding happiness with other people. I wasted your life away just because I wasn't happy with my own."

"That was a long time ago Ali," Emily mutters.

"It was. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm so sorry. Come here," Alison opens her arms for a hug.

Emily leans against her and, despite Alison having become colder and clammier than she used to be because of the disease, she still feels the warmth of the embrace. Suddenly there is a shift in her stance and she opens her eyes to find that Ali has pressed her lips against her own in a kiss. She involuntarily presses back, some force of habit she supposes, before she jolts up from the hospital bed, shock coursing through her veins like cold water.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asks, her voice louder than she intended.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. It just happened," Ali says, her apology seeming genuine.

"No, not this time," Emily says, grabbing her bag from the corner and heading for the door. She grits her teeth. "You're not going to solve this with a kiss."

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Emily runs up the stairs towards Paige's house. It had taken her forever to find a rent-a-biker but she didn't care. The other woman was not expecting her so early this night, with Hanna having planned an exciting night of playing Triad with her girls. But as soon as she had stormed out of that hospital room she realized that she needed to tell Paige about this. When her knocks are not met with as answer, she gets her own key out but as she swings the door open she is met with nothing but an empty house. She notices a note next to the coat hanger addressed to her, scrawled in Paige's poor excuse for a handwriting:

 **Em. Something came up. Jackson is at my dad's. When you see this, get back to the barracks ASAP. -Paige.**

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Once Emily arrives at the barracks she is met with Hanna, Spencer and Aria who rush to her.

"We went looking for you at the hospital," Aria says. "But Ali said that you had just left."

"Did she now?" Emily says tiredly, not willing to open up that giant can of worm just yet. "What is this all about?"

"The commander called us all in," Spencer says. "We've been going over the documents they just delivered to us. They finally narrowed down where Rollins' guerilla base is. They're going to perform a lightning strike. Tonight."

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Emily rushes into the upper part of a barrack. The takeover of Rollin's guerilla layer has been without major manfall for the most part. Most of his soldiers were not anticipating them and many have either given up or fled. Because of the layout they have been divided into small working groups which take over the quarters, piece by piece. It was after clearing their last assigned house that they received a mayday from Lieutenant McCullers, which had been sent on a two man stealth mission, because Sergeant Cavanaugh has been injured. Once they have secured the perimeter her squad rushes inside. Inside they find Toby lying on the floor, with Paige holding her hands tightly against his chest that is wrapped in blood.

"We ambushed Rollins here but he shot sergeant Cavanaugh and got away," Paige says, her face stricken with panic. "Help him, please."

"Montgomery, get the vehicle!" Emily barks and the petite brunette runs away obligingly. "Marin, scan for potential traps! Hastings, attend to sergeant Cavanaugh!"

"On it," Spencer replies and bends down, unpacking her medic kit. "Stay with us Toby. I'm not letting you go this time."

Spencer gently coaxes Paige to let go of Toby and as she busies herself with her work Emily grabs the auburn haired woman by the shoulders and forces her to make eye contact:

"Have you investigated the perimeter?"

"There was no time," Paige says, her voice quivering with fear. "He just came out of nowhere, and… and…"

"Paige," Emily says, startling the other woman. "I'm going to tell you the same thing now that you once told me before I get all professional. If you want to help Toby, check the boxes, follow protocol and do your job."

"You're right," Paige says, recognizing her own words from Emily's mouth. "It seems like he was trying to secure some documents but we interrupted him so he was not able to."

"Whatever he was trying to retrieve we need to find it," Emily says and Paige nods to her suggestion.

"Something like this?" Hanna says, appearing with a folder in her hands.

"This looks like the reports that Alison talked about," Emily says. "Of the interrogations that Rollins made."

"He didn't interrogate them. He tortured them," Paige remarks, taking the folder from Hanna and folding through the pages. "This might be something," she remarks and starts reading out loud: "Subject has offered no clues as to where the remaining samples of virus strain 101311191514 could be found. Intensive methods have yielded no success. I fear that soon the victim might succumb to her injuries but remain hopeful that she might shed some light, given that she is my last remaining alive lead after the destruction of Badger City. My informants uncovered that she used to be a chemical engineer working for the city's underground laboratory, so I know that my inquiries are not merely a shot in the dark. The subject has already revealed several things about her personal life: the fact that she lost a husband in the annihilation, but that their relationship was not fruitful in producing any children."

Paige flips to the next sheet and Emily notices how her face turns completely white. She drops the folder on the floor and takes a few steps away from the girls. Her radio buzzes:

"Subject has been spotted running for a hatchet at the south end of the perimeter. Coordinates have been sent to you. Do you copy McCullers?"

"Copy," Paige says. "I'm going after him. Solo."

Without another word Paige is back out the door, leaving the girls standing dumbstruck in the middle of the room, staring at the folder that she left behind. Emily notices something glinting in the middle of it and fishes out a small photo that is clipped to the back.

"Oh my god," she says. "We need to go after her."

"He's stabilized," Spencer says, her radio buzzing: it's Aria, announcing that she has arrived with the truck. "I've got him. Go!"

Hanna and Emily run out of the building, catching a glimpse of Paige turning a corner and follow her. Once they've made the turn they see a hatchet door wide open and without hesitation make the plunge down into the dark stairway below. What greets them is a labyrinth of tunnels, with footsteps echoing, without them being able to determine exactly where. After a few stressful minutes of covering one another they reach the a large hall which appears to be empty. But just as they are about to enter it Emily notices a shadowy movement behind them and to her horror she hears a thud as it takes a swing at Hanna who falls down unconscious like a sack of potatoes. The figure then takes a swing at Emily which it misses, but seems to grow twofold with frustration and charges her head on. They tumble down in an awkward position and before she is able to regain her senses Emily is headbutted violently. The impact flings her head back and as her head smashes against the cold concrete she sees stars dancing in front of her eyes. Emily feels the figure grabbing a hold of her arm, pressing her into a lock. She tries to struggle back but hears a loud popping noise and before the pain even registers she realizes that her shoulder is dislocated. White, glowing pain fills her mind and she writhes underneath the figure, who drags a knife from their belt. But before they are able to proceed they are knocked away from her and she watches in awe as someone charges into the figure like a thundering tide, yelling loudly as they do so.

The two of them tumble into the middle of the room which is lit up by a naked bulb that hangs above them. At first her attacker tries to lock the other person like down like they did with Emily but they manage to break away, backing a few feet away. Emily finally gets a good look at her attacker who turns out to be a handsome, dark haired man. His figure is slender and his face is long. He looks like the person that Alison described as Elliott Rollins. She turns her attention towards the person that came to her rescue.

"Paige," Emily whispers weakly as she peers at the auburn haired woman who is posed like a prowling animal, preparing to attack. Her first reaction is to try to get her legs underneath herself in order to help her, but she feels the dizziness hit her like a brick wall and the small movement sends waves of pain from her shoulder and into her torso. So she opts for staying still, sure that if she reminds Rollins of her existence she will be nothing but dead weight and that Paige will have to put herself in greater risk in order to save her -again.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Rollins says in a mocking tone, bringing his knife back up and looking at it, almost lovingly.

"Frack you!" Paige spits at him, holding her hands up like a boxer.

"You're quite the rude one aren't you Lieutenant McCullers?" Rollins says and seems to take great satisfaction in how the name seems to throw Paige off guard. "Or would you prefer Paige? Or P maybe? Like she used to call you."

Even in the low light, Emily notices how Paige's face completely drains of color. She seems to be forcing herself to maintain her guard, but her body is still like a statue. With Paige remaining at a loss for words Rollins sees that as a signal to continue:

"You think you really knew her do you? Jo wasn't even her real name. It was a lie just like everything else she told you. She worked for a secret lab in Badger City. They were developing a cure to the walker virus. And I was so close to getting my hands on their research. She must have really cared for it because she didn't even turn back to try to save her parents, not even her her husband as they burned down with the rest of Badger City. But she got away with it and I lost my sight of wasn't until a mole in your military unit told me that she had spotted you with someone that was extremely akin to her that I became hopeful to finally get back what had slipped through my fingers."

"You set that up?"

"There weren't any of the chemicals in that factory that you needed to begin with. But I knew that she would be interested to go on that hunt. Because from what I found in the ruins of Badger City I knew that there were certains components that both them and your fancy research station in California had a very limited amount of. So it wasn't a coincidence that she was interested to go on that specific expedition with you."

"She never… she never said anything."

"Because you didn't know her. You are such an infantile little girl," he spat at her with contempt. "Playing with daddy's toys and thinking you're so big. You think you can really get to know people by trusting them. That's a child's belief."

And with that he surges towards her, slashing his knife several times in her direction. Paige manages to pivot away and to another side. She looks horrified at her arms where Rollins has managed to get quite a few cuts in.

"The thing is Paige, the only way to really get to know someone is by a knife. She told me everything you know? How she felt like she had failed you by getting captured, how sorry she was to never get to finalize the cure and get to tell you the truth. She talked a lot about you you know? It got kind of tiring after a while. But I still felt glad knowing how well we got to know one another. We developed quite an… intense relationship. That has to sting, doesn't it? To know that I got to know your little love project a lot more than you ever did. And more than you ever will, seeing that she has... expired."

Paige's movement is so swift that Emily's bewildered brain almost doesn't catch it. She lurches towards Rollins, seeming to be going in for a punch which he in turn reacts to by positioning his knife to slash her again, but at the last moment she dips down low, scissoring his legs together in a Pyramid-styled tackle. Rollins falls on his back and his knife clatters away into a corner of the room. He is about to push himself up on his elbows but Paige wastes no time and jumps astride right on top of him. She punches him and releases a loud grunt, which is then followed by another, and then yet another. It is then that Emily realizes that the grunts are exclamations, short sentences which she spits out with every punch:

"You killed her!" Smack!

"You tortured her!" Smack!

"You murdered her family!" SMACK!

As the punches grow in numbers and her voice gets louder Emily becomes sure that Rollins isn't posing a threat anymore. But she is also sure that if this continues she will lose Paige to a place where she can't follow. She grabs her jacket with her injured hand in order to stabilize it and uses the other one to push herself to her feet. Her head is still swimming, yet she wobbles like a drunk towards Paige, determined to reach her destination. Rollin's face has become a messy puddle of blood and with a sickening crack, Emily hears the cartilage of his nose snap. With all the energy that she can muster she grabs Paige with one hand and manhandles her off of the now unconscious man.

"That's enough Paige!" she yells, hugging the other woman from behind. "It's over!"

The other woman attempts a feeble struggle to free herself at first, but then falls to her knees, sobs ravaging her entire body.

There is a sound near the entrance to the room and Emily sees a group of soldiers rushing in with Aria and Spencer in the forefront. Aria runs towards the pair of them while Spencer crouches down to Hanna who seems to be regaining her senses. As the blonde is taken away on a pair of stretchers, Spencer approaches Emily who has finally let go of Paige and slumped to the ground.

"How-how is Hanna?" Emily mutters, while Spencer inspects her injuries.

"Hanna is going to be fine. She was conscious and coherent," Spencer says. "It's you that I'm worried about here. I'm sorry we took so long, the entry got blown up so we needed to unearth it."

"You need to help Paige," Emily insists. "That bastard Rollins cut her."

"I got it," Aria says reassuringly, while patching Paige's arms up. "It's mostly surface wounds."

"It's not going to be that easy for you. I'm afraid I'll have to set you in manually. Are you ready?" Spencer says and puts Emily into position.

The raven haired woman feels a patched up hand slither into her healthy one, squeezing it reassuringly. She grits her teeth:

"Do it!"

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Once Rollins has been cuffed and taken away, Emily is deposited into the back of their truck, on a stretcher next to Hanna's. As Aria drives them back to their base, Spencer surveys her two friends with intense concentration. Emily thinks to Paige's face as they got out of the bunker and into their vans. She looked so distraught and incredibly far away. The battle is over. Rollins and his men have been overpowered. They won. But what was the cost?

"The exit that he was looking for through that bunker had already collapsed. Why did he try to fight you?"

"He knew that he had already lost," Emily remarks bitterly. "He just wanted to torment us. Or Paige mostly."

"Did he get to her?"

"He tortured the woman that she loved," Emily says. "Of course he did."

The matter-of-fact tone of this new information shocks Spencer who struggles to maintain her stoic expression. She is angling for something, dissecting the scene in her mind. Emily can feel it. And no matter how painful it's going to be she is going to feed her the information that she needs to make some part of this gruesome encounter mean anything:

"It was the woman whose file we found in the barracks."

"The one who Rollin's was sure had the key to the Walker cure?"

"Yes. Jackson's mother."

"But the file said that she didn't have any children," Spencer says, her face puzzled. "Why would she lie about that but tell the truth about everything else?"

"I don't know," Emily says, shivering as she remembers Rollin's remarks on Jo's last moments. "He admitted that he set up the trap when she disappeared. Made false reports that the factory that they were raiding had a chemical which the military needed and Jo saw as useful for manufacturing the cure."

"Do you remember what it was?"

"EtBr?" Emily prompts, remembering the details of the incident report that Paige had gone over with her. A way to help her deal with her guilt. "Paige said that the factory used to produce chemicals for cattle production before the Walker Virus."

"Ethidium bromide," Spencer says in her encyclopedic voice. "It was used to treat a disease called trypanosomiasis in cattle. All though it can also be used for other purposes. It's fluorescent and can be used to stain DNA sequences in order to map them out."

"Jeez Spence," Hanna mumbles. "You could have become a neurosurgeon with that brain of yours. What are you doing in the back of a truck with a lot like us?"

Emily laughs as Hanna's signature offbeat comment diffuses the tension a little. Spencer gives her a smile and touches her cheek affectionately.

"Because then I wouldn't be able to listen to your dumb remarks all day. I'm so glad that you're still here Han."

"Likewise Superbrain. But you never know. Study hard and you might just be able to clone me one day. You know, brew me with one of your test lubes…"

"It's test tubes, gosh Hanna. You're such an idiot sometimes," Emily says.

"Hey, don't blame me. My head got hit pretty hard."

"I doubt the blow to the head was the start of all this," Spencer says and rolls her eyes. But suddenly the smile on her face is replaced by a deeply pensive look.

They hear a knock coming from the front of the truck and Aria's voice through the thin metal wall that separates them from the driving seat:

"Guys, we're almost there. Prepare for transport."

Spencer affirms that the order has been received and starts preparing the two stretchers to be taken from the truck. But as she tightens Emily's sling the raven haired woman can hear her friend muttering something:

"101311191514. What if it's a code?"

While Emily and Hanna are wheeled in by Spencer and Aria and greeted by local hospital workers, they are informed that unfortunately their injuries rank very low on the list and thus there might be a while before they are treated.

"That's fine," Hanna says, opting to be led into a wheelchair that one of the medics rolls towards her. "We can wait. It would be worse for us if we were one of the people that needed emergency assistance. Huh Em?"

"That's true. You guys should probably take Spencer with you. She can assist with some of the more injured ones. Me and Han can just stay with Aria," Emily says, turning her head towards Spencer which still hasn't said a word.

Suddenly Spencer turns her head and looks at her friends:

"I got it! I got it! Guys, we need to hurry!"

Another truck which Emily recognizes as Paige's unit truck breaks crudely close to them and the medics rush to unload Toby's stretcher from the back. Paige jumps out of the driver's seat, showing no sign of fatigue despite the fact that red puddles have started appearing on her bandages. Spencer waves frantically while running towards her, grabbing the auburn haired woman by the shoulders when she reaches her:

"Paige. You need to get your dad. Quick. We have no time to lose. Get him to issue out the chemicals we need to conduct a DNA sequencing. I don't care how meagre the supply is."

"Corporal Hastings. What are you talking about?" even though Paige's composure remains straight, the fatigue can be heard readily in her voice.

"I think I cracked it. I know where Jo kept her key to the cure."

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Emily looks through the glass, observing the suit-clad group of people, moving slowly but deliberately on the other side. Spencer and Mona glance nervously at each other. Competitors, turned enemies, turned what she's not quite sure. Spencer might have cracked the code to the cure, but she still needs Mona's help to procure it. Like Emily details to Paige that night in their hospital room, when, despite the pain of her still recovering body, she has crept into the auburn haired woman's bed, just to feel the warmth of her. She knows it could be dangerous and that they could get caught, but at that moment she feels that the need to feel the other woman next to her is more important:

"Mona had suspected that the cure was the DNA sequencing of a living being. That's what she told the military back in Rosewood. That is why we were made to travel with all the Ethidium Bromide that she had gotten her hands on to California. She had already gotten that, but she needed more manpower, better equipment. And that was what she was promised here in exchange for her notes and cooperation. But finding that being that had the secret cure inside them was like finding a needle in a haystack."

"And that's where Jackson came in…" Paige mumbled.

"In a way it must have been a way to preserve the cure: keep it alive and breathing. And once Badger City was destroyed, she was able to find refuge in California, with the military on every corner, because nobody found a woman with a child suspicious."

"Why didn't she just tell me? I wouldn't have been mad."

"Without the means to extract it, all she would have been doing was putting you in danger by sharing the secret with you. That's why she was so excited to extract those chemicals from the factory..."

"...because she was hoping that her days lying to me were finally over," Paige said, chuckling humorlessly. "Well, those days never came."

"Now they have. Her sacrifice is going to save thousands Paige. If not millions."

"Will they develop it in time to help Ali?"

"No. Unfortunately not. They are working as fast as they can, supposing that they will be able to do the first trials by the end of the week. But that will already be too late for her. She is expected to pass sometime in the next 24 hours. We have all said our goodbyes."

"Do you think she is at peace?"

"I think she has tried her best. But not really. She feels that she has led such a rotten life, and wants to make up for it, but knows that she doesn't have the time."

"We don't always get the time that we need," Paige says. "Or think we deserve."

Emily ponders on those words, but is not able to form a proper response, feeling how sleep gets the better of her, weighing her head down until her eyes start to close.

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Emily is pulled from her slumber while it is still dark outside, feeling how her throat is dry and her tongue is glued to the roof of her mouth. She blames the medicine that she has been given and scrambles for a drink of water on Paige's side of the bed, only to find that the auburn haired woman isn't lying next to her. It takes her brain a moment to register but as soon as she has, she is on her feet. She could tell herself any number of things; that she had gone off for a walk because of insomnia or simply gone to the bathroom. But a sinking feeling tells her otherwise and without giving it another thought, she quickly scuffles to the elevator and mashes the button to get to the basement: where they keep the hopeless cases, like Alison DiLaurentis.

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Ali was jolted awake. Why, she wasn't quite sure. To be honest she wasn't sure if she was ever going to wake again. Her 24 hours were almost up, and by her calculations she wasn't going to live to see the next morning. She feels her eyes adjusting to the dark, realizing that it isn't dawn yet, but also that there is a figure standing in the dark, watching her.

"Sorry," Paige says, her voice drained of emotion. "I didn't mean to scare you. I did knock. But your door was unlocked. You should be more careful about that."

"Have you come to gloat?" Alison asks. "It does hurt. I won't lie. But on the other hand I won't deny that I probably deserve it."

"Alison DiLaurentis actually telling the truth. Now that's something I thought I'd never see," Paige says, approaching the bed. "I guess an impending death does change your perspective of things."

"I guess they do," Alison says. "I wish it didn't have to come to that, but for what it's worth I do regret the things I've done in the past. Especially to you."

"Well, isn't that grand," Paige says, reaching for something in her jacket which she has laid on the back of a chair. "Are we in the mood for some more truths?"

"If that's what you desire," Alison says, resigned to whatever may. "What do you want to know?"

"What are your feelings towards Emily?"

"My feelings for Emily are similar to what you have undoubtedly felt towards her," Alison chuckles. "And I sometimes wonder if the rest of the world that remains feels so too, because they should."

"Which is what?"

"That she can just look at you, with those big eyes of her, and she you for what you really are. She can see your flaws, your insecurities. But at the same time she sees your potential, she sees all the good that is hidden deep within you. Even when you can't see it yourself. Especially when you can't see it for yourself."

"That is very heartfelt," Paige says. "And I'm glad that you got to get it out. But I'm also afraid that I have to cut this heartfelt confession short."

"Why? There are still a couple of hours till dawn. I won't expire just yet."

"That is true," Paige says, laying out a syringe and a connected tube on her duvet. "But I'm afraid I have other plans for us Ali. If that's okay with you."

"Come what may," Alison says, exposing her arm. "I'm glad that we got to have this conversation McCullers. For what it's worth."

"For what it's worth," Paige says, tapping the needle meticulously.

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Emily quickens her pace, finally closing in on the place that she has been heading to for so long. She hasn't minded the long walk. Such unbelievable things have passed in the last week, some horrendous, some incredible, that she has felt that the stride has been somewhat therapeutic. Her mind starts to wander as she closes in on the street.

 _Emily got into the hallway, finding the door to the room that she was looking for. She grabbed the handle, realizing in horror that it was locked. She turned to the window, realizing that there was a chair on the other side, posed underneath the doorknob, making the room inaccessible to outsiders. On the other side she sees Ali, with a syringe jabbed into her arm._

 _"No…" she says, craning her neck trying to get a better look through the window. "No no no no no no!"_

She sees the house. Their house. There is no movement, at least not any that is visible. She slows down, not really sure what's about to meet her.

 _Panic overtakes her, she starts slamming her fists against the glass, knowing that it won't break, but desperate to get the attention of the people inside._

 _"Paige! Paige! Listen to me! You don't need to do this!"_

 _She sees Paige looking towards the noise, but quickly turning her head away. She can't even look at her. Maybe she's afraid that she'll chicken out. But that look on her face for the moment that their eyes meet tells Emily that the other woman is determined in her cause._

Emily hears ruckus. She walks towards the house but finds it empty. She walks throughout the hallway and into the backyard, throwing the door open. She has spent the last week confused and perplexed, but today she is ready to face the truth.

 _She is exhausted. Her arm is throbbing, but she flails her body around, still desperately bashing the glass, trying to get a reaction out of the people inside. There are other people there now. Military personnel rush in, a couple of strong men start kicking at the door, signaling to another person that they're going to need a battering ram to break through. Another personnel runs towards Emily, grabbing her. She allows herself to fall into their arms and starts to sink into the ground. But before the view from the window fades from her eyes she catches a glimpse of the blonde who looks straight at her and mouths a silent message:_

 _"This is what she wants Em."_

She takes a deep breath, stepping into the veranda. She notices Jackson, playing around in the grass. Next to the wall there are a couple of lawn chairs. She approaches one of them, stroking her good hand along the fabric, the other one still tightly held in a sling. She hears a voice from the other one:

"I know you don't agree with what went down that night Em. And I don't expect you to forgive me for that. But I did what I had to do."

"I understand it," Emily says. "But how could you Paige? How could you do that to me? How could you do that to us?"

"Because it was what was right."

They stay frozen in time for a while, but the world still moves around them. The sun shines, casting gentle rays into the backyard.

"How is she?" Paige asks. "Alison?"

"She's alive," Emily says, and chuckles at the thought. She never expected that she would be able to say that. And especially under those circumstances. But there they are. "And she's actually going to pull through."

"I knew I made the right call. She just needed time Em."

"And now she's going to get that," Emily says. "The doctors says she's going to live a long and healthy life."

And saying that she knows that fact to be true. Paige's brusque and thoughtless actions bought Alison the time that she needed in order to survive. With the blood transfusion that Paige illegally gave her, the virus had fresh tissue to feast on, which bought Alison a couple of more weeks. Which was exactly the time that Mona and her crew needed to come up with a trial cure to the Walker Virus, and with Alison infected, but not having yet completely succumbed, provided a perfect example.

 _"I don't really have anything to lose do I?" Alison had said, when they went over the terms and conditions with her, stating that the trial was after all, voluntarily. "And I think that with everything said and done, I kind of owe it to you."_

 _"You don't owe anything to me," she had responded._

 _"But I do Emily. I really do."_

"They're calling her the Miracle Girl, did you know that?" Paige says. "She's going to be the military's spokesperson, going state to state, showing people a living proof that we have a functioning cure for the Walker Virus."

"I know that back in Rosewood Ali always enjoyed being infamous," Paige says. "But I don't think she would have ever imagined she would gained her notoriety this way."

"I guess not," Emily says. She thinks back to the last time that she saw Ali, as she was getting ready to leave California. Despite being cured, there were still marks on her body, showing her close she was to turning into one of the walking dead.

 _They were going over the material that they were going to talk about on the tour. Alison DiLaurentis, the poster child of the redeemed infected. The girl that rose from the dead. Emily couldn't help to look over to the other woman. Small blue veins were visible across the blonde woman's face, and there was a green aurora that cascaded of her pale skin. Emily couldn't help but wonder if she felt insecure about these visible signs of how close she had been to being one of the undead._

 _"I deserve it," Alison had remarked. "It reminds me of how close I was meeting my end as a completely rotten person. But now I have another shot at life."_

"She will do good," Paige says. "I never guessed I would be saying that about Alison DiLaurentis, but this is something that I believe with all of my heart."

"And you made that happen," Emily says, shaking her head. "It could have killed you Paige."

"But it didn't," Paige says, almost sounding cocky. "Do you want to know something funny? The military doctors that treated me told me that this amount of blood loss would have killed most people. Even trained soldiers. That I must have suffered a chronic blood loss before that kept me from going into catatonic shock when I did a DIY blood transfusion with Alison. Which was ironically, thanks to something that she pushed me into doing. I guess the universe works in mysterious ways."

She isn't sure how to respond to that comment, so instead they both settle on looking towards the grassy side of the backyard where Jackson is rolling around, seemingly unaware of the passing conversation. She turns towards the auburn haired woman:

"How has he been doing? After the operation I mean?"

"Oh, he's a trooper. He had to take a couple of weeks off from the academy and Pyramid after the operation, but despite my warnings he still insists that he wants to go play in the backward like every single day."

"Are you ever going to tell him about it?"

"Which part? The fact that he was conceived in a test tube to become a cure to the Walker Virus. Or the fact that he had to spend ten years of his life growing up before the adults of the world actually figured it out and that he had to have some of his bone marrow removed in order to cultivate a cure that got tried out on my childhood nemesis and actually proved successful and might actually alter the course of the world that we know? No, I haven't told him any of that," Paige says, pinching her nose between her thumb and forefinger, seeming exhausted with what she had just said. "He's a kid Em. He needs to get better so he can go to school, make friends and play sports. You know. Like normal kids do. I will tell him Em. I will, I really will. But later, once he's mature and actually able to understand the reality of the situation then yes I will explain it to him. I will try to calmly talk to him about the fact that his existence might have actually saved the entire human race."

"Don't you think that he might get too egotistical about that?"

"Oh, I won´t allow that to happen. No Mam. He didn't actually pull in any work towards bringing a cure to the Walker Virus. So he shouldn't walk around acting like he does."

Emily can't help but chuckle:

"You know, this is one of the things that I actually really love about you."

"That I'm a die hard army grunt that will not allow Jackson claim any honor he hasn't worked personally towards to?"

"No. Well maybe. I like the fact that you're letting Jackson decide his own destiny. That he'll get to live up to whatever he decides to do. No matter if that's a Pyramid Captain, an Army Brat or a dead beat. You're allowing him to create his own destiny."

"Maybe I'm creating the destiny for him that I wish I would have been allowed to pursue on my own."

"Maybe…"

And it is at that point that Emily looks from the other woman, away from the empty chair next to her, across the afternoon sun that slits across the backyard, that she realizes that this is it. Because no matter how angry she has been and in some way still is, at the auburn haired woman's brusque actions that might have ended her life, she realizes that at some point she will come to forgive her. She can see it, forming in front of her, not too long down the road. At some point when the sun starts to set, she will help the other woman up from her chair, and they will prepare Jackson, the little miracle boy, _their little miracle boy_ , for bed. And that tomorrow she will wake, her legs intertwined with the other woman, and together they will make plans for the day.

"Why did you do it Paige?" she asks, taking a seat next to the other woman.

Paige dips her head down, avoiding her gaze. She wets her lips and struggles for words before the sentence comes out in a low mumble:

"Because you shouldn't have to spend your life trying to imagine something that might have been."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean with Ali. And Ali herself deserves a shot in life. She will lecture hundreds if not thousand of people about the fact that as of now, there is officially hope. And her story might stop many more girls that were like her, in a fragile and suggestive state, to succumb to charismatic, two faced, villainous men. And you deserve a shot as well. I decided that I wasn't going to be that person anymore, a person that is happy that someone is dead or missing. And I didn't want you to be with me, knowing that I might have pushed somebody else that is important to you just so that I could take their place over."

"For someone that is always so sure of her ability you sure do ignore the importance that you play in my life," Emily says. "It would never come down to picking and choosing Paige. Because there has never been any doubt in my mind. You are, and have always been, the one that I want. And as mad as I am at you for doing what you did, I guess it's also what makes you the person that I love so dearly."

The auburn haired woman lifts up her head, and Emily swears that she can see tears glistening in her eyes. She wipes them away clumsily with the heel of her hand, as Emily wracks her brain for another topic of conversation:  
"I can't believe that Mr. McCullers was too pleased with what you did."

"Not exactly. I know that in some ways he would be able to get me a bigger blood transfusion than merely the one that they gave me to keep me alive. But he is giving me the month off, to heal manually. Maybe he is trying to teach me a lesson, making me hang around here, so wrung out that I can barely wipe my own arse. Are you still on active duty?"

"Not at the moment," Emily says. "So I guess that you're stuck with me."

"When is your squad going back on duty?"

"That's the thing… There isn't much to call a squad anymore. Spencer is going to be working with Mona, improving the Walker Cure. Together they form the only team in the world that is able to get it done."

"What about Aria and Hanna?"

"Hanna is staying with Caleb here in Cali. They are going to do some work for the military, improvement of equipment, technically and physically. And Aria finally decided to accept Jason's offer to work at the research station that he has been setting up."

"What are the chances of Aria starting a relationship with Ali's estranged brother. That research station is going to be very far away isn't it?"

"It is. I hear Iceland is lovely this time of year. They are going to be the link that ties Europe to North America. Our post in the North so to speak."

"That just leaves you…"

"...kind of up in the air. The military doesn't really know what to do with me at this point in time."

"I have heard some whispers…"

"You have? I thought you were in exile at this point in time."

"Just because I can barely stand up without getting light headed doesn't mean I can't still catch what's going down the grapevine. My ears still work just fine."

"And what have those whispers been about?"

"There is a new mission. Top secret, very experimental. The goal is to not only be able to cure people that have been exposed to the virus but to be able to reverse the process."

"To return the Walkers back to the living. But that is impossible."

"If you asked most people, they would have said that finding a cure would have been impossible mere weeks ago. Heck, I would have said it. And look at us now."

"Will you be working on that project?"

"I will. I will represent the military's official interest. Make sure that all the boxes are ticked. But we will be doing some work behind enemy lines. And for that we will be requiring a tactical officer."

"Are you offering me a job?"

"I am suggestion you for a position. One that you are very deserving of. But what I am offering you personally is something different."

"Which is…?"

"Be with me Em. Help me raise Jackson to become a good person, because I know that you can see the good in people, instead of their status or their past, better than anybody else I know. Stay with me Em. For better or for worse. Richer or poorer."

"In sickness and in health?"

"Yes, or while I lump around like a senior citizen with half of my red blood cells fighting to multiply. Say you'll be with me Em. Always. Till death do us part."

"I'd like that very much," Emily says, clasping the other woman's hand.

They look towards Jackson, basking in the moment, of the words that they have just spoken, of the commitments they have just made.

"When do we start?"

"Well, they're still drawing up the blueprints to the whole project. But they want to meet with us tomorrow, to sign our contracts. My father will be coming with the paperwork. Are you ready for that?"

Emily looks at Paige, feeling how the enthusiasm burns between them like a light refusing to go out:

"Come raise the dead?"

"Let's raise the dead."

 **Author's Notes: The song that I had playing in my head for that final scene was "Raise the Dead" by Rachel Rabin, in case you were interested. I imagined it playing as the scene fades to black. Check it out. It's cool. And once again, thank you for your endless patience and I hope that you enjoyed the ride as much as I did.**


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